How does a nuclear reactor work?
154746
There are two major types of reactors in use in the U.S.  Boiling Water Reactors (BWR)\nPressurized Water Reactors (PWR)\nIn either type the coolant acts as a moderator to slow down the speed of neutrons so that they have a better chance of intereacting with the fuel.  The neutron collides with a fuel atom causing it to split releasing some energy (read heat) and two more neutrons to continue the process.  Control rods absorb some neutrons as does chemicals injected in the water (boron)  to slow down the reaction.  This way you get a nice slow even release of energy instead of all at once.  The water is pressurized to allow it to remain liquid at much higher temperatures sort of like your radiator.  A steam generator is a heat transfer device that allows the water to stay pressurised in the primary system and still get steam to turn the turbine.  After that, it all works like any other power plant.  The only difference is how you make the steam.  \n\nIn a boiler I am sorry to have to back away because all of my experience is with PWR's.\n\nCheck out the link below for plenty of info on these beasts.
101238
well, the basic idea is that they're kind of like a big propeller inside a tube.  one side of the tube is connected to a sealed tank with some water in it, and the other side of the tube is vented out to the air.  when you light a fire under the water, the water boils and releases steam.  this fire can be powered by coal, oil, or even not be fire at all - in a nuclear reactor, the nuclear reaction is used to heat water that in turn boils and makes steam.\n\nif you've ever done any cooking on the stove, you know that if the container is sealed, the steam can build up to a VERY high pressure.  \n\nif you then open a valve and send the steam down the tube toward the turbine, the high pressure on one side will cause the turbine blades to spin.  just like a propellor working in reverse, essentially.  obviously i'm glossing over some of the details - there are a lot of subtle thermodynamics involved with a real turbine, and "propellor" is only a very rough approximation.\n\nso the shaft of the propeller is then connected via some gearbox to a generator.  a generator is basically a loop of wire that is free to turn in a magnetic field.  usually this field is generated by a permanent magnet.  \n\nif the loop spins, the mechanical energy of the spin is converted into electrical energy via a phenomenon called magnetic induction.  if you then connect the wires of the loop to some circuit, the induced current will power the circuit.\n\nan old roommate of mine was into collecting miniatures steam engines, for some reason, and apparently there are quite a few companies that make them.  here is a representative example of one or you can search on google for "steam turbine toy" or "steam turbine kit":\n\nhttp://www.lilliputmotorcompany.com/steam-turbine-wilesco-p-451.html\n\nas for a generator, lots of science hobby places sell little kit generators.  you don't want to use a big one as your tiny steam engine won't have enough torque to turn one over.  here's an example:\n\nhttp://sciencekit.com/category.asp_Q_c_E_440210\n\nhere are some links about how steam turbines work, and magnetic induction and generators:\nhttp://library.thinkquest.org/C006011/english/sites/dampfturbine.php3?v=2\nhttp://www.sciencejoywagon.com/physicszone/lesson/otherpub/wfendt/generatorengl.htm\nhttp://www.taftan.com/thermodynamics/STURBINE.HTM
1110130
There are a few things you need to know about fissionable materials. One, a good fissionable material goes though a fission reaction when it absorbs a neutron. Two, a good fissionable material releases more than an average of one neutron when it goes through a fission reaction. The material must be able to go through a fission reaction by absorbing a neutron that travels slower than the release speed of the previous reaction. Once you have the a material that fits those requirements the rest is a probability game. If you have a small amount of material within a set space the probability of a neutron from one fission event hitting another fissionable atom is very unlikely, but as more and more material is placed within a set volume the probability increases until a point where on average every reaction will lead to one additional reaction. This point is called critical mass. At this point you have a controlled chain reaction, and generate heat. Then you run some material through the reaction to transfer heat out of the reactor to a generator.
888620
Nuclear fission—also known as atomic fission—is a process in nuclear physics in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei as fission products, and usually some by-product particles. Hence, fission is a form of elemental transmutation. The by-products include free neutrons, photons usually in the form gamma rays, and other nuclear fragments such as beta particles and alpha particles. Fission of heavy elements is an exothermic reaction and can release substantial amounts of useful energy both as gamma rays and as kinetic energy of the fragments (heating the bulk material where fission takes place).\n\nNuclear fission produces energy for nuclear power and to drive explosion of nuclear weapons. Fission is useful as a power source because some materials, called nuclear fuels, both generate neutrons as part of the fission process and also undergo triggered fission when impacted by a free neutron. Nuclear fuels can be part of a self-sustaining chain reaction that releases energy at a controlled rate in a nuclear reactor or at a very rapid uncontrolled rate in a nuclear weapon.\n\nThe amount of free energy contained in nuclear fuel is millions of times the amount of free energy contained in a similar mass of chemical fuel such as gasoline, making nuclear fission a very tempting source of energy; however, the waste products of nuclear fission are highly radioactive and remain so for millennia, giving rise to a nuclear waste problem. Concerns over nuclear waste accumulation and over the immense destructive potential of nuclear weapons counterbalance the desirable qualities of fission as an energy source, and give rise to intense ongoing political debate over nuclear power.\n\nhere:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission#Physical_overview
771693
CanTexan is on the right path. More specifically, Nuclear Reactors create Heat. This heat energy creates a Pressure in the transfer medium (Water -> Steam) and is transferred to Rotational Mechanical Energy in a turbine. The attached Generator produces Electrical Energy.
846920
Well, it should be close to what I did as a nuclear power qualified Sailor on US Submarines.  There is a small space called maneuvering that provides a place for three men to control the reactor, electric plant and the steam turbines.  The engine room has several other watch standers that monitor the turbines, generators, air conditioning, evaporators, switchgear and other stuff.
548869
Reactor : To generate heat. Thats where the radioactive stuff is.\n\nModerating Rods : to control the rate of heat release from the reactor.\n\nBoiler : To generate steam and to cool down the reactor. (Moderating rods are used assuming what is called a heat load on the boiler ie that its full of water and making steam. What happened at Three Mile Island was that they thought there was water in the boiler and there wasn't)\n\nTurbine : to make electricity from the steam\n\nCondenser : to turn the steam back to water (If the turbine is not a condensing turbine)\n\nPump : to pump the condensed water back into the boiler\n\nInstrumentation : measuring flows, pressures, temperatures, liquid levels etc, and lots and lots of it to let you know whats happening and keep the thing safe. (what happened at Chernoble is that the emergency instrumentation was "overridden" which means its didn't shut the plant down when it should have)\n\nConcrete : to keep everything isolated.\n\nA very simple overview, hope it was interesting.
293938
well depending on how well it's built, the same thing that would happen to any reactor hear in the US if it core was breached. You would have a radiation leak
387468
They extract the heat from the nuclear reaction instead of burning fuel.\nThey don't have emissions.\nThey have higher safety and security measures.
9127
In nuclear reactions, MASS is converted into energy.
779775
Nuclear fusion is the process of creating usable energy by fusing, or combining, the nuclei of two light atoms (like deuterium) into the nucleus one heavier atom (like helium). This is the process that powers the Sun.\n\nSo-called "cold" fusion was a claim (since widely doubted) that this fusion of nuclei could be done chemically, without the high temperatures and pressures that most physicists believe is necessary for fusion to occur.\n\nFusion is a nuclear process, but it is quite different from conventional nuclear power, which is a process called "fission." In fission, a heavy nucleus, like Uranium or Plutonium, is split into two lighter "daughter" nuclei, releasing energy.
339414
some reactors don't need them b/c they're not cooled by water.  they have liquid metal reactors and also gas cooled reactors.  however.  however, in a boiling water reactor the water that turns the turbines never comes in contact w/the outside, it simply stays in the reactors in a continuous loop.  that heated water is used to boil other water which causes the turbines to turn.  pretty much all of the reactors used in the United States are PWR so they all will have cooling towers.
218083
I assume you mean nuclear "bomb"...\n\nIn simplistic terms, and nothing you can't easily find elsewhere, a nuclear bomb is made up of material that fissions (meaning that its atoms can be split to release energy) - this is either Uranium-325 or Plutonium.  Uranium is found in nature but the vast majority is U-238 which doesn't fission - natural uranium must be enriched to create a fissionable amount of uranium - this is true for commercial power reactor fuel too.   Plutonium is made in nuclear reactors from bombarding other materials with neutrons.\n\nTo have a "nuclear yield" the fissionable material in a bomb must be forced into a 'critical mass' configuration which means that it is so dense (atoms close together) that once the material starts to fission and release energy and neutrons, other atoms will capture the released neutons and then they will fission releasing more energy and neutrons and so on and so on with the chain reaction making the boom.\n\nWith the early plutonium bombs (Fat Man), the material was in a sphere and was forced together with high explosives uniformly to create a ball (critical mass). In the first uranium bomb (Little Boy, which they didn't even test until it was dropped on Japan since they were confident it would work) 2 uranium blobs were forced together by essentially thrusting/throwing/shooting one to the other to create the critical mass.  The math behind all this physics is incredibly complex.\n\nTo add bang for the buck they started adding the gas Tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, hence the name Hydrogen bomb versus just the Atomic Bomb...  Tritium makes the yield much bigger.
564251
Neuclear Fission and Fusion:\n\nSIMILARITIES:\n\n1.Both work on the basis of electromagnetic radiation.\n2.In both, a slow moving nuetron is used to emit radiation.\n3The source partiles are the same(U235, U238, PLUTANIUM, ETC)\n\n\n\nDifferences between fission and fusion\n\n\n\n\nThe main difference that there is between fission and fusion is that fission is the splitting of an atom to form two smaller ones while fusion is the fusing of two smaller atoms to form a larger atom. In each of these the binding energy of the final product or products is higher than that of the prerequisites. This is explained more fully in the next section (Binding Energy).\n\n\n\n\nFission itself is a nuclear process which does not usually occur naturally in nature (at least not that we know of) as it requires a large mass and an incident neutron to start the reaction. However this would not last for a long time as the reaction would explode and produce a result such as in an atomic bomb. This volatile nature is what prevents fission from occurring for any length of time naturally.\n\n\n\n\nFusion on the other hand is a process which occurs quite naturally. In fact, if fusion did not occur naturally we would not be around today. This is due to stars being the result of the fusion process, the fusion of mainly light atoms into heavier atoms. Fusion also releases a lot more energy in comparison to fission in relation to the mass input. Put simply you will get more energy released from the fusion of 1kg of hydrogen ions than you will from fission of 1kg of Uranium.
748392
A nuclear reactor is critical when the number of neutrons generated is just sufficient for a self sustaining reaction.  Three neutrons are produced when uranium fissions.  If <1 neutron interacts with another uranium nucleus the reaction is sub critical.  If 1 of the 3 neutrons interacts with another uranium nucleus, the reaction is critical and proceeds at a constant rate.  If >1 neutron interacts with another uranium nucleus the reaction rate grows exponentially and, if unchecked, will result in a large explosion.
160185
try this website, I just did a search and this came up:\n\nhttp://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq5.html
840554
well i dont know what to say about plants being constructed but here is a kinda link of a map of nuclear power plants, you'll have to copy it and paste it on the adress bar\n\nhttp://www.lanl.gov/quarterly/q_fall03/images/reactor_map.jpg