What is the source of energy in current nuclear plants?

Question

i'd love to know

Answer 1

nuclear pellets, used to fuel nuclear reactors.

that about does it.

Answer 2

beyond your little brain

Answer 3

Uranium, primarily. It is a metal ore found naturaly in the earth. In it's natural form it has only a small amount of U-235 and a lot of U-238. Most 238 is removed and used for many industrial uses. The 235 is then concentrated to the desired level and used to make fuel. It is normally about 3% U235 I think. The fuel is not highly radioactive before it is assembled into a certain configuration which will cause it to begin a nuclear reaction which creates heat.

The heat produced is then used to heat water which makes steam to drive a turbine generator.

The fuel can be designed to last about 3-5 years, then new fuel rods are installed.

Answer 4

Thus far, fusion reactions have not been successfully used for power generation. So we depend on fission.

The breakdown of fissionable material is very slow, until the amount of fissionable material in close proximity approaches critical mass.



As critical mass is approached the number of atoms undergoing fission starts to spike as the number of neutrons from other atoms creates a domino effect, in multi-dimensions.

We limit the scale of fission by putting absorbing material between rods or pellets of fisionable material. By absorbing some of the neutrons in material that does not produce its own, we can slow the reaction down. We speed it up by exposing more of he fissionable material to be hit by neutrons in flight.

During fission, mass is lost, and based on that loss of mass, we get E = MCC.. so that the energy released is many orders of magnitude greater than a chemical  reaction.

Answer 5

Fuel rods (NOT PELLETS) are made out of a radioactive material dependent on the type of reactor it is installed in.  The fuel rods' natural decay release neutrons that, when the reactor is shutdown, are absorbed by the control rods.

As the control rods are raised more fuel is exposed to more neutrons.  The neutrons are absorbed by the atoms of fuel(such as U235 becoming U236) causing that atom to become unstable and fission.  Three things happen at this point to produce usable energy: 1-Heat is released by the fissioning of the fuel and heats the reactor coolant (water), 2-A lot of neutrons are released to collide with the reactor coolant transferring the neutron's kinetic energy to the H2O., 3-The resulting fission daughters (Cesium, Krypton, Xenon and others) from the splitting of the fuel have short half-lifes and their decay creates heat.

The released neutrons from fission created more fission.  For commercial reactors the control rods are now used to control the rate of fission such that the flow of coolant through the reactor keeps the fuel at an operable temperature.  The coolant transfers the heat to a Steam Generator (heat exchanger that allows the boiling of the water on the non-radioactive side of the heat cycle).  The steam is then directed to a Turbine Generator and power is sent to the grid.

Answer 6

in the nucler power plant .....cadd... rods are used for stoping the process of nuclear fussion & fission ...from urinaim.

small urinaim  can also provide da electocity to a small town for 30 days ....dis power plan is not gud for env..can if da rays are able to escape from da reactor den it can harm us

Answer 7

Fission.

Large unstable atoms (like Plutonium or certain Uranium isotopes) break down into smaller more stable atoms.  

During the process energy, which winds up ultimately as heat is generated.

This heat is turned to steam, the steam runs turbine engines which turn generators and produce electricity.