It's What's Inside
That Counts -
How Nuclear Power
Plants Work
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Nuclear power plants, with their huge, ten-foot thick concrete walls and enormous steam
towers are massive things. But for all the area they take up, their energy comes from a source so
small that the only thing that can see them are the most powerful microscopes.
These are atoms, and more specifically, the neutrons and protons inside the
atoms.
Before we get into radioactivity and
nuclear power plants, let's talk about some basic things that you will
hear a lot about as you read.
Atoms :
Small But Strong
Atoms are made of three
sub-atomic particles
electrons
neutrons
protons.
The protons and neutrons form something called the nucleus .
The nucleus is in the center of the atom and all the electrons orbit
around it.
Neutrons have a neutral charge, protons a positive
charge, and electrons, a negative one. Since positive and negative charges
attract, you might expect that the protons should be stuck to the
electrons but this does not happen. The neutrons which are neutral, keep the
protons from moving by acting like "glue" that hold them in their
position. back
Isotopes :
Even The Same
Elements Can Be Different
The periodic table of elements is a list of all the known elements that make up our world.
There are 92. Each element has a different atom to go with it. But, for some
elements, there are slightly different atoms that are still considered to be the
same element.
All atoms in a certain element have the same number of protons, but sometimes,
there is a different number of neutrons. These variations in an elements atoms
are known as isotopes. Here is an example. Hydrogen has three isotopes,
hydrogen-1, hydrogen-2, and hydrogen-3. The numbers after the hydrogen are the
numbers you get if you add the number of neutrons and protons in that particular
atom. back
This diagram shows the isotopes of hydrogen and helium.
the yellow dots are electrons, the blue are neutrons, and the red are
protons.
Copyright ©1998-2002
HowStuffWorks, Inc. All rights reserved
Now that you know about isotopes and atoms, you are ready to read about
radioactivity and nuclear power plants. Enjoy!
Nuclear radioactivity is a simple process if you know about it. The majority of
all elements are not radioactive, which means that they will stay the same
forever. However, some elements are radioactive. This means that after a certain
length of time, the element will change into another one. There are three types
of ways an atom can become another one. They are alpha decay, beta decay, and
fission.
Alpha Decay : In alpha decay, an atom will release two neutrons and two protons that are bound
together. After this, the atom becomes a different atom. For example, an
Americium-241 atom will become a neptunium-237 atom after releasing an alpha
particle. The alpha particle will then leave the atom at speeds around 10,000
miles per second. back
Beta Decay : In beta decay, a neutron in an atom will turn into three different things, a
proton, an electron, and a small particle called an antineutrino. The atom
releases the electron and antineutrino, but not the proton. Therefore, all that
really happens is that the nucleus of the atom gains a proton. An example of
beta decay is a hydrogen-3, or tritium atom. After the beta decay process, the
hydrogen-3 atom is a helium-3 atom. back
Fission : The process that we are going to deal with when talking about nuclear power
plants is the fission process. This is the process used in power plants and
bombs and gives off a tremendous amount of energy. When an atom undergoes
fission, it splits into two new atoms. Also, the original atom will eject
neutrons at the moment of the fission, so the two new atoms put together will
not have the same mass as the original one. For example, if a fermium-256 atom
underwent fission, it could create a Xenon-140 and a palladium-112 atom. The
ejected neutrons would continue away from the site of the fission and might run into
another atom and create more fission. In nuclear power plants, the idea is to
control the number of times fission is made. The more fission, the more power is released.
You would think that the power plant would want as much power as it could get,
but too much power will create a nuclear meltdown, endangering thousands of
people. back
An incoming neutron is absorbed by a nearby atom. The
atom takes in the neutron, becomes very unstable, and immediately is split
into two parts, releasing more neutrons. All this takes place in just
millionths of a second.
Copyright ©1998-2002
HowStuffWorks, Inc. All rights reserved
The Loop : Nuclear power plants actually work exactly like a coal or oil-based plant except
that the ways they make steam to drive the turbines are different. A nuclear
power plant works like this. Water is pumped from a water source such as a lake
or reservoir. It is then pumped through the cooling water condenser, which is
used to turn steam that is not used by the turbine back into water, and into
the containment building. When it goes through the reactor, it is immediately
turned into steam by the extreme heat generated by the atoms. The steam is then
pumped into a turbine, making it spin. This creates the energy that the
generator turns into electricity that can be used at home. There are a few
different types of ways to use this system to create energy. The only main
difference is that many of them have an added step: Instead of pumping steam
directly to the turbine, it is put through a steam generator which uses the
radioactive steam to turn unpressurized water into steam to turn the turbine.
In this way, no radioactive steam ever touches the turbine or any other part of
the plant. back
Copyright 1998-2002
HowStuffWorks, Inc. All rights reserved
This is the basic way electricity is generated by a nuclear power plant, but
there is much more that needs to be discussed to have a full understanding of a
nuclear plant.
The Reactor : In a nuclear power plant, the energy is produced by the
reactor core. The reactor core is
made up of things called fuel rods and control rods. Each of these is necessary
to run the plant. Fuel rods are long rods that contain things known as fuel
pellets. In the pellets, enriched uranium known as "yellow cake" is
placed. Yellow cake is a mixture of uranium-238, a non-radioactive form of
uranium, and uranium-235, a highly radioactive form of uranium. In a fuel
pellet, there needs to be about 40% uranium-235. In an atom bomb, this level
needs to be increased to almost 90%. These fuel rods are placed in bundles in
the reactor core.
Control rods are used to control the amount of
heat that is produced by the reactor. Control rods are inserted into the bundles. They
then absorb neutrons that would otherwise hit other atoms and increase the heat
and energy. Control rods are used mainly for safety. They are used to shut down
the reactor in case of a meltdown, and keep temperatures to a safe level.
Besides this, they also slow the fission down, which increases the probability
that the neutrons will hit atoms.
In the reactor core, there is always something called coolant present.
Coolant actually has two purposes. It cools down the reactor so that it will not
melt, and it carries the steam and energy that the turbine needs to spin.
Generally, the coolant is water, which is the easiest to use, but in some cases,
liquid sodium or carbon dioxide is used. The advantages of these coolants are
that they enable the reactor to go to higher temperatures and produce more
energy. There is also something called a moderator in a reactor. A moderator is
placed around fuel rods to absorb excess atoms. They are needed so that
radioactive atoms do not escape to other parts of the plant. back
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