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.
In:
When nuclear atoms gets hit with neutrons it gets hot. And tosses out more neutrons. Those new neutrons cause more atoms to get hot and toss out neutrons.
It’s a sort of self-sustained effect in a material that rapidly heats itself up.
Well. For a while. Eventually it’ll be crap at tossing electrons, and heat less. But let’s overlook that for a bit.
That heat is nifty to make use of. If you place the material in a tank full of water, it’ll make steam. High pressure steam.
The steam is used to move a turbine on a generator.
That’s pretty much what there is to it.
Very advanced and very dangerous kettle. Kind of like when you make tea in your kitchen. Except larger. Lots larger.
It’s literally advanced machinery that boils water in a fashion that makes it important to monitor it closely and add tons of safety features.
Edit; spelling.
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