♫ How does a Nuclear Reactor work? ♫?
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A piece of uranium or plutonium is put in water, and then the water begins to boil releasing a large ammount of of energy. That energy is collected. What`s left over from this reaction is known as nuclear waste.
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
3398
the nuclear fision is mainly carried out in an atomic reactor. It is an process in which a nucleus of heavy atoms like Uranium splits into two nuclei of smaller masses and a large amount of energy is produced. This energy is known as nuclear energy.\nThe Nuclear Fusion is the process in which the nuclei of two different elements fuse or combine to form one and huge amount of energy is produced. This process takes place in Sun.
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.
931534
According to Alex Imholtz ( http://www.otal.umd.edu/~vg/amst205.F97/vj09/project5.html ) , gas refrigerators work this way :\n\nsection having a series of coils containing steam. The steam is created via a gas flame. Strong liquid (ammonia mixed with water) flows over the coils and the heat from the steam causes it to boil. As a result of the boiling, the strong liquid gives off ammonia vapor which exits the generator (2). This ammonia gas leaving the generator contains a small percentage of water and is somewhat warm. The gas enters the rectifier which is an amalgam of a heat exchanger and condenser created to purify the gas by taking away the heat and water. The heat from the gas is removed by liquid flowing though the rectifier. The cooling of the gas is what removes the water vapor. The water vapor condenses and drips back into the generator (3). The ammonia gas, however, proceeds to the condenser. It is here that the ammonia vapor is reduced to a denser form - liquid. The condenser consists of a ladder of tubes parallel to one another. Water flows downward over the outside of the tubes, taking heat from the warm gas flowing through them. The temperature decreases causing the ammonia gas to change phases. At the bottom of the condenser, liquid ammonia flows out (4). This anhydrous ammonia then passes though a brine cooler. Brine is simply the salt, of any substance, dissolved in water. The ammonia chills the brine and the brine then chills the unit (5). The ammonia then passes through the evaporator where it returns to gaseous form. The ammonia then proceeds to the absorber. Here, the evaporated ammonia is dissolved into water. After the ammonia is absorbed, the liquid is now strong and the cycle can begin again. A pump draws off the strong liquid, and discharges it to the generator where the process starts over (6).
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A sample of the starting element is placed inside a nuclear reactor which produces a lot of neutrons, some of which are absorbed by nuclei in the sample. Different nuclides have different affinities for neutron capture.\n\nPolonium 210 has been in the news lately. It's made via this method from bismuth 209. Bismuth 209 captures a neutron to become bismuth 210 and then quickly emits an electron from the nucleus to become polonium 210.\n\nSome artificial nuclides can be produced by bombarding material with protons or electrons from particle accelerators.\n\nTechnetium 99 is an artificial nuclide that is used in every modern hospital every day for a variety of tests. Te99 is formed from the fission of uranium. It is extracted from spent fuel rods from reactors.
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Only U-235 and Pu-239 and slow neutrons. fast neutrons just pass through. Uranium has some spontaneous fission. \nCollisions with moderate size atoms will leave the new atom spinning and it can then fission. \nAlphas lose a lot of energy just overcoming the coumb barrier then the protons/neutrons are absorbed more than splitting.
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They extract the heat from the nuclear reaction instead of burning fuel.\nThey don't have emissions.\nThey have higher safety and security measures.
778277
Fission.  Nuclear reactors\nFussion. The sun.
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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.
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It's a device that replicates DNA(especially a specific part)enzymatically outside of a living organism.(The procedure is called PCR-polymerase chain reaction-)It's carried out in a thermal cycler(I guess this thermal cycler is what you mean by the reactor.)
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In most electric power plants, water is heated and converted into steam, which drives a turbine-generator to produce electricity. Fossil-fueled power plants produce heat by burning coal, oil, or natural gas. In a nuclear power plant, the fission of Uranium atoms in the reactor provides the heat to produce steam for generating electricity.\n\nHeat is produced in a nuclear reactor when neutrons strike Uranium atoms causing them to fission in a continuous chain reaction. Control elements, which are made of materials that absorb neutrons, are placed among the fuel assemblies. When the control elements, or control rods as they are often called, are pulled out of the core, more neutrons are available and the chain reaction speeds up, producing more heat. When they are inserted into the core, more neutrons are absorbed, and the chain reaction slows or stops, reducing the heat. \n  Most commercial nuclear reactors use ordinary water to remove the heat created by the fission process. These are called light water reactors. The water also serves to slow down, or "moderate" the neutrons. In this type of reactor, the chain reaction will not occur without the water to serve as a moderator.
957400
All the above is true,\nIt also however formed the basic understanding of Nuclear power generation.  The reaction that causes an explosion for a weapon, is the same as that in a reactor except it is controlled.  Modern ( western) nuclear generators can trace their lineage back to the Manhatten Project.
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Simple answer:\n\nAlpha particles\nBeta particles\ngamma particles\n\nAnd the remainder is an isotope of the previous element. \n\nBut the more important question you should ask is, "what causes nuclear decay?" And I don't mean "how" it works or "what" happens, my question is, "why does nuclear decay happen at all?" The answer is that no one knows why the atom of nuclear elements decide to break down. But it'll be interesting if you ask the questions to see the different responses.\n\nhope this helps.
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Unless you are letting it be run by a bunch of drunk ruskies, who think it is a good idea to pull out all the control rods and see how hot they can make the reactor... \n\nOther wise (truth be told) the ammount of radiation that is emited by a nuclear power plant is about the same as the ammount emited by a oil or coal power plant.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission\n\nEffectively generating energy from breaking down an element to at least two smaller elements.\n\nThis is the reaction that takes place in bombs and power plants. This is distinct from fusion
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E=MC2 doesn't talk about radiation.  It is about energy.  Nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors work off of the same principle.  Just in nuclear reactors, the reaction is controlled and made safe, and in bombs, the energy is released all at once.  When an atom is "split", the total mass of the origional atom and the neutron that splits it is more than the pieces that it breaks into.  That difference becomes heat energy, and the E=MC2 tells you how much energy.  The radiation that everyone associates with it comes before and after the nuclear reaction, when the nuclear fuel and daughter products (the pieces the atom split into) decay and emit various forms of radiation, depending on what is decaying.  E=MC2 doesn't talk about this part of the process, just about the moment the atom actually splits.  To reverse the process and convert energy into mass is mainly theoretical, though it is possible.  Lab conditions have achieved microscopicly small results.  This is the process that the transporters and replicators use on Star Trek.