Animations
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Inside a nuclear powerplant: Uranium is usually formed into pellets with approximately the same diameter as a dime and a length of an inch or so. The pellets are arranged into long rods, and the rods are collected together into bundles. The bundles are then submerged in water inside a pressure vessel. The water acts as a coolant. In order for the reactor to work, the bundle, submerged in water, must be slightly supercritical. This means that, left to its own devices, the uranium would eventually overheat and melt. To prevent this, control rods made of a material that absorbs neutrons are inserted into the bundle using a mechanism that can raise or lower the control rods. Raising and lowering the control rods allow operators to control the rate of the nuclear reaction. When an operator wants the uranium core to produce more heat, the rods are raised out of the uranium bundle. To create less heat, the rods are lowered into the uranium bundle. The rods can also be lowered completely into the uranium bundle to shut the reactor down in the case of an accident or to change the fuel. The uranium bundle acts as
an extremely high-energy source of heat. It heats the water and turns it to
steam. The steam drives a steam turbine, which spins a generator to produce
power. a) containment
structure b) control rods c) reactor d) steam generator e) steam line f) pump
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