How Nuclear Power Plants Create Electricity- Justin P.

Topic Question: How do nuclear power plants create electricity? Explain.

1/16/19

What is A Nuclear Power Plant and how does it work?

Nuclear power comes from nuclear fission. Nuclear power plants are used to heat water and produce steam. The steam is used to spin large turbines that generate electricity around the country. Nuclear power plants use heat produced during nuclear fission to heat water. Nuclear power plants are used all around the world. The United States use nuclear power plants more than any other country. We use them to produce most of our electricity. Nuclear power plants generate the heat from nuclear fission into electricity.

What is Nuclear Fission?

Nuclear fission was founded December 17, 1938, by a German man named Otto Hahn and his assistant Fritz Strassman. Nuclear fission is the splitting atoms. Atoms are split apart to form even smaller atoms. Nuclear Fission can be a nuclear reaction or a radioactive decay process. The fission process produces free neutrons and gamma photons and releases huge amounts of energy. Nuclear fission occurs inside the reactor of a nuclear power plant. The center or the core of the reactor contains a liquid known as Uranium fuel.

What happens to the Uranium Fuel?

The Uranium fuel is formed into ceramic pellets. Each pellet produces close to the same amount of energy as 150 gallons of oil. The energized pellets are stacked in 12-foot metal fuel rods. The bundle of rods is called fuel assemblies. The reactor core contains many of the fuel assemblies.

What do we do with the Heat and electricity that is formed?

The heat produced during nuclear fission in the reactor core is used to boil water into steam, which turns the blades of a steam turbine. As the turbine turns, the blades drive generators that make the electricity. Nuclear plants cool the steam back into water in a separate structure at the power plant called a cooling tower or they use water from ponds, rivers, or the ocean. The cooled water is then reused to produce steam.

 

 

Sources:

Wikepedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fission

World Nuclear-http://www.world-nuclear.org/nuclear-basics/how-is-uranium-ore-made-into-nuclear-fuel.aspx

Duke Energy-https://www.duke-energy.com/energy-education/how-energy-works/nuclear-power

EIA.GOV- https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/index.php?page=nuclear_power_plants