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.
Not really. It depends on what you are trying to do. A nuclear power plant is a power plant that uses a nuclear reactor as its source of energy. A nuclear reactor, on the other hand, is a more generalized term for a device that uses nuclear energy (specifically the release of binding energy from the Strong Atomic Force) to do something. In the general case, we use the reactor to generate energy for the power plant to use in generating electricity. Sometimes, we use the reactor for other, research type things, such as generating a neutron flux to study the physics of nuclide activation.
The part of a nuclear power plant that undergoes a fission reaction is called the reactor core. This is where the nuclear fuel, such as uranium or plutonium, is housed and where the chain reaction occurs to produce heat energy.
Reactor number 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986.
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.
The Fukushima Nuclear Power plant is a Japanese nuclear power plant in which the reactor meltdown occurred after the tsunami and earthquake in 2011. It is a site of paramount historical global significance to the nuclear energy and safety sector.
simply, the nuclear reactor is the source of heat (or steam) for the nuclear power plant.
The heart of a nuclear power plant is the nuclear reactor.
a nuclear reactor converts binding energy into heat. a nuclear power plant uses a nuclear reactor to generate electricity.
lead
the reactor accident at the chernobyl nuclear power plant.
It's really just a matter of degree, all reactors produce some power. Those used in a power plant will produce perhaps 3000 to 5000 Megawatts thermal. Low power reactors producing a few kilowatts are used for experiments, teaching in universities, and for producing radioisotopes by irradiating samples, but reactors in this sort of power level would not be harnessed to produce electricity, the heat produced if large enough would be removed and rejected to the atmosphere or to a water cooling circuit. This makes them simple to operate and to start and stop as required.
The Shippingport reactor was the first full-scale PWR nuclear power plant in the United States.
Controlled! ...if the reactor is working properly.
Steam from the heat of the reactor.
Depending on: - the type of the nuclear reactor - the electrical power of the nuclear reactor - the type of the nuclear fuel - the enrichment of uranium - the estimated burnup of the nuclear fuel etc.
Not really. It depends on what you are trying to do. A nuclear power plant is a power plant that uses a nuclear reactor as its source of energy. A nuclear reactor, on the other hand, is a more generalized term for a device that uses nuclear energy (specifically the release of binding energy from the Strong Atomic Force) to do something. In the general case, we use the reactor to generate energy for the power plant to use in generating electricity. Sometimes, we use the reactor for other, research type things, such as generating a neutron flux to study the physics of nuclide activation.
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station. The heat source is nuclear reactor. Its main point is to produce electricity.