The Finer Details of Nuclear Reactors

May 1
18:58

2020

Nancy Whitman

Nancy Whitman

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

It isn’t as hard and difficult to understand how nuclear reactors work. This is because it isn’t as complicated as what you might think. There is much interesting information that you need to know about the nuclear reactors, what it is exactly, how it works and some other interesting info. When people hear about nuclear reactors, they think that this is something completely complicated and hard to understand. However, this is actually simple if you are getting the information in a simple explanation. This is everything you might want to know about nuclear reactors but in simple understandable terms.

mediaimage

What is a nuclear reactor in short?

In easy terms,The Finer Details of Nuclear Reactors Articles a nuclear reactor is basically nothing more than a giant kettle. It is using the boiling water to turn the steam into electricity.

The steam is used to turn turbines that are generating energy. Making it better and cheaper to generate electricity. This is basically a simple process, but it needs sophisticated and specialized equipment and trained people to turn the steam of the kettle into electricity for a large city.

The two types of nuclear reactors you can normally find

There are two types of nuclear reactors that you normally can find in countries like the USA. Some other countries might have other nuclear reactors as well. The main two nuclear reactors that you can find is the:

  • boiling water reactor
  • pressurized water reactor

The boiling water reactor is the normal nuclear reactor where they are making use of steam to turn the turbines for generating energy and electricity. The pressurized water reactor works a little bit differently. It is also getting heat up, but it is kept under pressure so that it doesn’t boil. Then another machine is taking the steam and used it to turn the turbines.

How does it work exactly?

We basically already explained how the nuclear reactors work, but here is a much better explanation about how it works. The nuclear reactors are getting heat up with uranium. Sometimes different companies are making use of other methods for heating up the reactors.

The water in the reactors are getting hot, steam is forming. The steam is then going to the turbines and starting to turn the turbines. The turbines are used to generate energy and electricity. The larger the nuclear reactors and turbines, the more energy and electricity it can produce. The moment that there is a break between the uranium that produces the heat, the water that is getting hot and steam or the turbines, no energy will be generated. One of the most dangerous and delicate operations pertaining to nuclear reactors concerns the installation or removal of catalyst beds. Known as catalyst handling, more and more companies are now choosing to utilize unmanned machines to perform the duties, greatly lowering the risk of exposure or injury to industrial maintenance personnel.

Some interesting information about the nuclear reactors

It is important to make sure that you understand that we are talking here about factories that are making use of nuclear reactors for manufacturing their products. We aren’t talking about nuclear power stations. They are using the same principle but they split uranium atoms. Meaning that there are less waste and pollution released in the air. They are also using more than one nuclear reactor to produce enough energy for a whole city or to assist with the energy for a country.

There are some nuclear reactors that need higher heat than others to start generating energy. It depends on the type of nuclear reactor that they are using.

You will have now a much better understanding of the nuclear reactors that can be found in factories and in nuclear power stations. This is quite interesting to see how energy is being made and how nuclear reactors and hot water with steam can generate enough energy to power a city.

CR Asia is a leading industrial maintenance and shutdowns and turnarounds specialist, providing a comprehensive range of services to the oil, gas, chemical, refining and power industries, including professional reactor services, mechanical and plant maintenance services, mechanical engineering services, heat exchanger maintenance and cleaning services and more.