How does the nuclear power plant create energy?

Question

How does the nuclear power plant create energy?

Answer 1

In nuclear fusion, atoms collide and create heavier elements.  During this process, tremendous heat is generated.  This heat is used to create steam that powers turbines for creating electricity.  The reason this process works so well is because of the large amount of steady energy and heat that can be obtained from a relatively small amount of radioactive material.

Answer 2

you mix radioactive stuff together and it creates electricity...dont listen to the other nerds above or below me...

Answer 3

in a nut shell heat-steam-turbines-generators-electrici...

Answer 4

You split a uranium atom and lose mass in the process the mass lost converts into thermal energy (E=MC squared) which makes steam that generates electricity from steam turbines.

Answer 5

By using uranium's decay heat to boil water and using that steam to turn turbines connected to generators.

Answer 6

Law of Conservation of Energy:  Energy can neither be created nor destroyed only altered in form.

Fission (not decay) of the fuel is an exothermic reaction and transfers its energy to the water in the reactor coolant by the energy release of the fission and by the kinetic energy transfer of the release of thermal neutrons in the collision with the water molecules.

In pressurized water reactors (PWR - the majority of nuclear power plants) the coolant that flows through the reactor vessel does not boil, due to the elevated pressure in the system, but transfers the heat from the fission of the fuel to a steam generator.  The steam generator is a heat exchanger that transfers the heat of radioactive water in the coolant to the feed water in the secondary side of the steam generator.  The steam is then directed to steam turbines which are the prime movers for the electric generators.

Answer 7

Low energy neutrons in the reactor cause uranium and plutonium atoms to fission into lighter elements with some of the original mass being converted into heat.

The heat is absorbed either directly or indirectly by cooling water which boils and is then used to drive a conventional steam turbine and electrical generator.