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English: Nuclear reactor: pressurized water type. Water is heated through the splitting of uranium atoms in the reactor core. The water, held under high pressure to keep it from boiling, produces steam by transferring heat to a secondary source of water. The steam is used to generate electricity.
English: Video diagram detailing the inner workings of a nuclear reactor: pressurized water type. Water is heated through the splitting of uranium atoms in the reactor core. The water, held under high pressure to keep it from boiling, produces steam by transferring heat to a secondary source of water. The steam is used to generate electricity.
English: Nuclear reactor: boiling water type. Water is heated through the controlled splitting of uranium atoms in the reactor core and turns to steam. Pumps force the water through the reactor at top speed, maximizing steam production. Steam drives the turbines that turn the generator that makes electricity.
A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuclear reactor after the pressurized water reactor (PWR). BWR are thermal neutron reactors, where water is thus used both as a coolant and as a moderator, slowing down neutrons.
A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan, India and Canada).
The control panel for the Hanford nuclear site's B Reactor in 2008. AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File The B Reactor was the world's first full-scale plutonium production reactor .
Without delayed neutrons, changes in reaction rates in nuclear reactors would occur at speeds that are too fast for humans to control. The region of supercriticality between k = 1 and k = 1/(1 − β) is known as delayed supercriticality (or delayed criticality). It is in this region that all nuclear power reactors operate.
Modern nuclear reactor designs have had numerous safety improvements since the first-generation nuclear reactors. A nuclear power plant cannot explode like a nuclear weapon because the fuel for uranium reactors is not enriched enough, and nuclear weapons require precision explosives to force fuel into a small enough volume to become supercritical.