nuclear power. how does nuclear power work? fission produces heat heat boils water making steam...

Nuclear Power

How does nuclear power work?

• Fission produces heat• Heat boils water making steam• Steam turns a turbine• Turbine produces electricity

What is fission?

• Fission occurs when a neutron splits an atomreleasing energy (heat) and more neutrons

A chain reaction!

• If the released additional neutrons split other atoms it creates what is called a

“chain reaction.”

https://youtu.be/Ezbyg2iNdQs

Controlled chain reaction

• In a nuclear reactor, the fission chain reaction is controlled using “control rods” to absorb some of the additional neutrons.

• In an ordinary commercial electricity-producing nuclear reactor the fuel does not contain enough U-235 to produce a nuclear explosion.

Uranium

• Uranium is a very slightly radioactive naturally-occurring element with atomic number 92.

Isotopes

• Different isotopes of an element have different amounts of neutrons and thus different atomic numbers.

Atomic numbers

• The atomic number of an element is the sum of the particles in its nucleus: protons and neutrons.

• The isotope of uranium that has 92 protons and146 neutrons is calledU-238.

The importance of neutrons

• The protons in the nucleus all are positively charged and hence repel each other.

• The neutrons separate the protons from each other and help all the protons to co-exist in the nucleus.

• • We should try to be neutrons in the world around

us, helping all of our planetary humans to co-exist together.

U-238

• More than 99% of the Uranium in the ground is U-238.

• U-238 doesn’t fission.

U-235

• Less than 1% of the Uranium in the ground is U-235.

• U-235 fissions!

Reactor basics

Three water systems

A video explanation of a nuclear reactor