EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -A nuclear reactor, or power plant, is a series of machines that can control nuclear fission to produce electricity. The fuel that nuclear reactors use to produce nuclear fission is pellets of the element uranium. In a nuclear reactor, atoms of uranium are forced to break apart.

Detailed explanation-2: -Nuclear reactors are the heart of a nuclear power plant. They contain and control nuclear chain reactions that produce heat through a physical process called fission. That heat is used to make steam that spins a turbine to create electricity.

Detailed explanation-3: -Nuclear power comes from nuclear fission Nuclear power plants use heat produced during nuclear fission to heat water. In nuclear fission, atoms are split apart to form smaller atoms, releasing energy. Fission takes place inside the reactor of a nuclear power plant.

Detailed explanation-4: -In contrast, in a nuclear reactor, the rate at which the nuclear fuel undergoes fission is rigorously controlled using “control rods”: cylinders of neutron absorbing material that are inserted into the reactor core to absorb a portion of the neutrons released by the fission of the uranium-235 fuel.