nuclear reactor in this video are going
to learn about the nuclear reactor
nuclear reactors are the modern-day
devices extensively used for power
generation as the traditional fossil
fuels like coal are at the breech of
extinction a nuclear reactor is the
source of intense heat which is in turn
used for generation of power in nuclear
power stations its mechanism is similar
to that of a furnace in a steam
generator the steam is used to drive the
turbines of the electric generator
system the nuclear reactor consists of
three crucial components fuel elements
moderator and control rods fuel elements
come usually in the shape of thin rods
of about one centimeter in diameter and
contain fissionable nuclei like
uranium-235 or uranium 238 these rods
vary a number according to the size of
the reactor in large power reactors
thousands of fuel elements are placed
close to each other this region where
these fuel elements are placed is called
the reactor core these fuel elements are
normally immersed in water which acts as
a moderator the objective of a moderator
is to slow down the energy neutrons a
nuclear reactor which are produced
during the nuclear fission process by
the fuel elements thermal neutrons which
are the neutrons with energy of about
0.04 electron volts are capable of
producing fission reaction with
uranium-235
during the fission reaction process new
neutrons are given out which have
energies of about 1 MeV this is 1 mega
electron volts these neutrons typically
escape from participating in another
fission process as they are accompanied
by enormous energy release in fact the
probability of these neutrons produce
another fission reaction is 500 times
less than that compared to a thermal
Neutron
this is where a moderator is extremely
useful moderators have the capability to
slow down or in other words moderate the
speeds of these high-energy neutrons so
that they can in turn be used for a
chain reaction to trigger multiple
fission reactions of other uranium-235
nuclei commonly ordinary or heavy water
is used as a moderator in nuclear
reactors because of the deuterons
present in them which are capable of
slowing down the neutrons speed water
molecules in the moderator are useful in
slowing down the high-energy neutrons
which leave the fuel element after
nuclear fission these high-energy
neutrons collide with water molecules
thereby losing out on some energy with
every collision and therefore slowing
down substantially a new fission
reaction can now be triggered using this
slow Neutron by striking it with a fuel
element the third and most prominent
part of a nuclear reactor are the
control rods in order to get a steady
output of energy from the nuclear
reactor every single fission reaction
should trigger another fission reaction
and ensure the availability of spare
neutrons released to trigger the chain
reactions by controlling the number of
spare neutrons available at any given
time the rate of nuclear fission chain
reactions can be controlled
this control on the fission reaction can
be maintained using control rods the
main function of the control rods is to
absorb any excess or spare Neutron in
the moderator in order to prevent any
further fission reactions usually such
control rods are made of boron or
cadmium to increase the rate of fission
reactions these rods can be removed from
the moderator a steady output of energy
can must be maintained by inserting or
removing the control rods in the nuclear
reactor now that we know the components
of a nuclear reactor let's understand
the working of a nuclear reactor it's
usually enclosed in a shield made of
thick concrete walls it can
of a reactor core pump and heat
exchanger the reactor core and pump are
placed in contact with the water which
is usually the heat exchanger in these
reactors due to the enormous amount of
heat released during the fusion reaction
the surrounding water gets heated up and
changes to steam which is in turn used
to turn the turbines so huge heat energy
gets converted into electrical energy
water is continuously flown in and out
of the nuclear reactor using the pump so
a nuclear reactor successfully generates
nuclear energy from fission reactions