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A nuclear power plant is a controlled nuclear pile. Both slow and fast reactors contain radioactive material (uranium or plutonium), and are kept from going supercritical due to moderator (cadmium control rods) and coolant such as sodium or, most commonly, water.
Thus, the rate of nuclear reaction can be controlled.
However, in a nuclear bomb, the goal is (super)criticality. Two subcritical masses are brought together to form a critical/supercritical mass, or a subcritical mass is brought to criticality by implosion, increasing the density, and no control of the reaction is provided.
In this way, a nuclear bomb is allowed to reach critical mass and result in runaway nuclear reaction very quickly...or order to result in nuclear detonation.
What else can I help you with?
How powerful is a nuclear bomb compared to the sun?
The power of a nuclear bomb is a very tiny fraction of the power of the sun.
What is the difference in a nuclear power plant and a nuclear bomb?
A nuclear power plant uses a slow, controlled nuclear chain reaction to heat water and generate electricity. A nuclear bomb uses a very rapid uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction in order to generate a massive explosion.
What are some results of nuclear fission?
The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Every single one of the nuclear power plants. Every atom bomb and Hydrogen bombs.
Can a nuclear power plant turn into a atomic bomb?
No, a reactor is operated at critical and a bomb at supercritical. Also reactors include safety shutdown systems that quickly make them subcritical stopping the reaction.However reactors can have steam explosions and hydrogen/oxygen explosions. These are physical and chemical explosions respectively, not nuclear.
Use nuclear in a sentence?
It was a nuclear bomb. Everyone was afraid of a nuclear bomb. The nuclear power plant malfunctioned. The Cold War was about fear of nuclear attack.
Why go from atomic energy to a bomb?
Actually the bombs came first, nuclear power plants were not developed until the early 1950s
What is a catchy nuclear power slogan?
nuclear energy is the sun not a bomb
What is the difference between the nuclear reactions in a nuclear reactor and those in an atomic bomb?
Nuclear reactions in a nuclear reactor are controlled reactions. The reactions in the atomic bomb are not controlled reactions
What is the difference between a fire bomb and a nuclear bomb?
A fire bomb is a conventional incendiary bomb: magnesium, napalm, etc. A nuclear bomb uses fission and/or fusion and is mostly a blast effect weapon.
Is there a difference between an atomic bomb and a nuclear bomb?
There isn't much difference in these terms. Both refer to nuclear weapons, and they are general terms that can pretty much be used interchangeably.
What is the difference between nuclear bomb and plutonium bomb?
A nuclear bomb is any bomb with any nuclear or atomic material inside it, while a plutonium bomb is a specific type of nuclear bomb. Plutonium could be the nuclear material inside the bomb, and if it is, it's a plutonium bomb.
Does Iran need nuclear power?
I don't believe that Iran should have nuclear power because they threaten to bomb the USA if they do get nuclear power.
