The reactor itself does not make a lot of sound when operating. Nuclear fission is silent, but moving water in the core (in a pressurized water reactor) might be heard as it circulates. But it would not be easy to put your ear to the reactor vessel as radiation levels would be very high and the vessel would be very hot. Certainly the pumps that are running to circulate coolant will be audible.
Wikianswers does not do diagrams. If you go to Wikipedia article on Pressurised Water Reactors you will find a diagram there.
Heavy water can be used in a nuclear reactor to moderate the speed of neutrons, making it easier for uranium-238 to absorb a neutron and become plutonium-239. This process is known as breeding plutonium in a reactor and is one method of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons or fuel.
Nuclear fusion does not currently occur in nuclear plants. Nuclear plants use nuclear fission, where atoms are split to release energy. Fusion reactions, in which atomic nuclei combine to release energy, are not yet used commercially for electricity generation.
Uranium-238 is converted to plutonium-239 in nuclear reactors by absorbing neutrons, which then undergo fission reactions. This conversion process is a key aspect of nuclear reactor operation, particularly in breeder reactors where new fuel is produced while generating energy.
All current nuclear reactors are fission reactors, tritium has no function in a fission reactor, in standard water moderated reactors deuterium also has no function, in heavy water moderated reactors deuterium is the moderator. If we are ever able to make a fusion reactor, deuterium/tritium mix will be used as fuel.
The US has 104 operating reactors and none of them have exploded. It's a matter of good design and operating methods. Nuclear explosions though are not possible in a commercial nuclear reactor, because the nuclear fuel is not sufficiently enriched to make a weapon, whatever happens in the reactor.
If you are a smart guy, you can make a nuclear bomb, or a nuclear reactor...
the nuclear reactor makes steam wich drives turbines wich drive generators that make the electricity
An Ark reactor as currently describe in comic is very much like a Nuclear Fuel Cell. Possibly convert energy from Nuclear reaction to power. Possibly a plasma nuclear fusion reactor. I believe in the future it could be made. See the link and compare the similarity of fusion reactor and Ark reactor.
The nuclear fuel is found in the fuel rods. These fuel rods are formed into fuel bundles called fuel assemblies, and together they make up the reactor core.
An example of nuclear fission might be a nuclear weapon. In this device, sub-critical masses of fissionable material are driven together by conventional explosives. This "assembles" a critical mass, and a chain reaction will follow. That is a nuclear fission chain reaction. In another example, a nuclear reactor has its control rods pulled and achieves criticality. It is brought to operating temperature and generates heat to make steam and drive turbines. The reactor operates on the principle of nuclear fission.
The most practical way is to take a nuclear reactor with you when you go there.
It can't as nobody has figured out how to make a fusion reactor.
A positive void coefficient in a nuclear reactor means that as coolant (water) turns into steam, the reactor's power output increases. This can lead to a rapid increase in reactor power, potentially causing overheating and a meltdown. It is a safety concern because it can make the reactor more prone to accidents and harder to control.
The inventor of the nuclear reactor was Atticus Finch. He was a scholar at MIT and got a master in space technition. In 1942 he invented the nuclear reactor to help the Germans in WWII. The Americans later stole it. The inventor of both the nuclear reactor & nuclear bomb was Leo Szilard in London in 1933, he patented them in 1934. But as no fissionable or fissile material was known at the time neither could be built. It took Otto Frisch's 1938 discovery that the rare isotope Uranium-235 fissioned to make the practical and the US investment in industrial infrastructure between 1942 and 1945 to purify enough of it to make them actually buildable.
Because the USSR withdrew support for reactor projects in China in 1959.
The uranium 235 atoms in the nuclear fuel are what actually fission, or split into two other atoms. The uranium is in ceramic fuel pellets that are inserted into fuel rods, that make up fuel elements, that are in the reactor core that is located in the reactor vessel of the nuclear power plant. After the fuel has been in the reactor it begins to produce plutonium 239 atoms within the fuel which will also undergo a fission reaction.