How exactly does nuclear power plants work? How are they able to generate electricity using radioactive things?
In: Physics
Oh man, I feel particularly qualified to answer this question. I was a licensed reactor operator at a nuclear plant for eight years.
Most large power plants use steam to push a turbine (a type of windmill-in-a-box) that is attached to an electrical generator. To make the steam, they heat up water.
Where does the heat come from? Ah, that’s the interesting part. In a coal-fired or natural gas power plant, the heat comes from combustion (burning) of the fuel. But with a nuclear power plant, the heat comes from fission.
What is fission? It’s the splitting of a big atom (usually Uranium) into two smaller atoms. The reactor vessel is the container in which the fuel is fissioned. Cold (well, relatively cold) water goes into the reactor and comes out hot.
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