They explained how a power plant works in the Chernobyl mini-series. One part that got me thinking is how they use the energy from the fission to heat up that generate the steam which in turn run the turbin and give electricity (Correct me if i’m wrong).
What I don’t understand is why can’t the raw energy from the fission directly be used instead of going the whole cycle? What kind of energy is released from the fission and why can’t it be stored in a battery or capacitor-like thing?
In: Physics
There is no such thing as “raw energy”. Energy has a number of forms it can exist in, but it cannot exist outside of these forms. Nuclear fission releases energy in the form of heat and electromagnetic radiation. This energy is used to heat water to run a turbine.
Heat energy is difficult to store, due to its tendency to conduct through any insulating media (and nuclear fission produces so much heat that it must be dissipated or the reactor will melt down). And electromagnetic radiation is pretty much impossible to store. So the best way to store that energy is to convert it into a form that can be stored, such as converting it into electrical energy and then storing it as chemical potential energy in a battery.
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