I was watching the HBO series Chernobyl and in the second episode, Professor Legasov explains the working of a nuclear reactor. Unfortunately the explanation wasn’t enough. Enlighten me.
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There are different different types of reactors, the one used in the Chernobyl plant was rather unique.
At a high level, all fossil, nuclear, gas power plants tend to do the same thing. They make steam. Steam is then used to make the power.
In a nuclear plant the heat that creates the steam is comes from nuclear fission. There is a core of nuclear fuel, which is bombarded by neutrons which creates a reaction of which one of the by-products is heat.
That heat is used to heat up water to the point that it creates steam, the steam is then used to turn a turbine, which spins a power generator and makes power.
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