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The nuclear reactor of a nuclear power plant is usually considered to be the core and the pressure vessel in which it is encased. The control rods, which are in the core (and pulled some or all of the way out to run the reactor) have their associated rod drive motors on top of the pressure vessel. Instrumentation ports are up there, too. All of these things are generally considered to be the "nuclear reactor" portion of the primary system in the plant. A link is provided to a picture posted at Wikipedia. It has a portion of it colored to show the reactor core, but the pressure vessel is "cut away" to view the core. The control rods (#1 in the drawing) are shown as being on top. That's incorrect. The rod drive motors and control rod lead ("leed" and not "led") screws are up there. (The lead screws connect the control rods, which are down in among the fuel bundles, to the rod drive motors, which are up on top of the pressure vessel's cap.) The rods belong in the core, or in the area above the core when they are pulled out. The whole thing, the core, the vessel, and the rod drive motors as well as the instrumentation on top are considered to be the "nuclear reactor" in a power plant. If asked to identify the picture, the most correct response is probably, "It's a cut-away drawing of a nuclear reactor." That means everything in the picture is part of the nuclear reactor.

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Q: What is the nuclear reactor of a power plant?
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