If I understand correctly, water is heated up in a reactor, goes through a turbine and in turn creates energy. How exactly does it cause radiation?
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The way we heat that water is through nuclear decay. We take an partially unstable substance (ie radioactive material) this substance is always putting off energy as bit by bit the large unstable atoms break apart. If we take enough of that material and put it close together the energy released from one atom will break apart another. This self sustaining reaction produces a lot of heat that we can use to turn water into steam.
Now some of the energy being released is extremely high frequency. This energy slams into every it touches with much more energy than you’d imagine from radiant heat. It’s so much energy that it knocks apart weak molecules. This is what we call radiation.
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