nuclear power. how does nuclear power work? fission produces heat heat boils water making steam...
TRANSCRIPT
Nuclear Power
How does nuclear power work?
• Fission produces heat• Heat boils water making steam• Steam turns a turbine• Turbine produces electricity
What is fission?
• Fission occurs when a neutron splits an atomreleasing energy (heat) and more neutrons
A chain reaction!
• If the released additional neutrons split other atoms it creates what is called a
“chain reaction.”
https://youtu.be/Ezbyg2iNdQs
Controlled chain reaction
• In a nuclear reactor, the fission chain reaction is controlled using “control rods” to absorb some of the additional neutrons.
• In an ordinary commercial electricity-producing nuclear reactor the fuel does not contain enough U-235 to produce a nuclear explosion.
Uranium
• Uranium is a very slightly radioactive naturally-occurring element with atomic number 92.
Isotopes
• Different isotopes of an element have different amounts of neutrons and thus different atomic numbers.
Atomic numbers
• The atomic number of an element is the sum of the particles in its nucleus: protons and neutrons.
• The isotope of uranium that has 92 protons and146 neutrons is calledU-238.
The importance of neutrons
• The protons in the nucleus all are positively charged and hence repel each other.
• The neutrons separate the protons from each other and help all the protons to co-exist in the nucleus.
• • We should try to be neutrons in the world around
us, helping all of our planetary humans to co-exist together.
U-238
• More than 99% of the Uranium in the ground is U-238.
• U-238 doesn’t fission.
U-235
• Less than 1% of the Uranium in the ground is U-235.
• U-235 fissions!
Reactor basics
Three water systems
