Nuclear Power Using Fission to Generate Electricity

Nuclear Power Using Fission to Generate Electricity 

The fission of U-235 in the core of a nnclear power plant generates heat that creates steam and turns a turhine on an electrical generator. Control rods are raised or lowered to control the fission reaction. (Note that the water carrying heat away from the reactor core is contained within its own pipes and does not come into direct contact with the steam that drives the turhines.) 

Nuclear power generation, however, is not without problems. Foremost among them is the danger of nuclear accidents. In spite of safety precautions, the fission reaction occurring in a nuclear power plant can overheat. The most famous examples of this occurred in Chernobyl, in the former Soviet Union, on April 26, 1986, and at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan in March of 2011. 

A In 1986, the reactor core at Chernobyl (in what is now Ukraine) overheated, exploded, and destroyed part of the containment stmcture. The release of radioactive nuclides into the environment forced the government to relocate over 335,000 people. It is estimated that there may eventually be several thousand additional cancer deaths among the exposed populations. 

Reactor cores in the United States are not made of graphite and cannot hum In the way that the Chernohyl core did. 

By inserting or retracting the control rods, the operator can control the rate of fission. If more heat is needed, the control rods are retracted slightly. If the fission reaction begins to get too hot, the control rods are inserted a little more. In this way, the fission reaction is confrolled to produce the right amount of heat needed to generate electricity. In case of a power failure, the fuel rods automatically drop into the fuel rod assembly, shutting down the fission reacfion. 

A typical nuclear power plant generates enough electricity for a city of about 1 million people and uses about 50 kg of fuel per day. In contrast, a coal-buming 

A Technicians inspect the core of a nuclear reactor, which houses the fuel rods and control rods. 

---

Nuclear Power Using Fission to Generate Electricity ... 

---