Following the events at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors in Japan has been challenging. At best, even those present at the site have a limited view of what's going on inside the reactors themselves, and the situation has changed rapidly over the last several days. some fuel rods have almost certainly melted, but we have not seen a meltdown; radioactive material has been released from the reactors, but the radioactive fuel currently remains contained. Over time, the situation has become a bit less confused, as cooler heads have explained more about the reactor and the events that have occurred within it. What goes on inside a nuclear reactor Nuclear reactors are powered by the fission of a radioactive element, typically uranium. There are a number of products of this reaction, but the one that produces the power is heat, which the fission process gives off in abundance. There are different ways to extract electricity from that heat, but the most common way of doing so shares some features with the first steam engines: use it to boil water, and use the resulting pressure to drive a generator. Radioactivity makes things both simpler and more complex. On the simpler side, fission will readily occur underwater, so it's easy to transfer the heat to water simply by dunking the nuclear fuel directly into it. In the reactor design used in Japan, the fuel is immersed in water, which boils off to generate power, is cooled, and then returns to the reactor. The pressure vessel ... Brand New Accutire Tire Gauge Dagoba Chocolate Grand Sale
