How Do Nuclear Power Plants Produce Energy?

Nuclear power plants are widely used across the United States, but unlike coal burning power plants, they emit no CO2 into the air. Even though the same steam process is used to turn a turbine and power a generator, nuclear power plants use their own special process to produce energy.

Uranium

Uranium is the main substance that nuclear power plants use to create energy. A specific isotope of uranium, known as U-135, is used and to get that from uranium the substance must go through an enrichment process.

Nuclear Reactor

Once the uranium is separated, the "good" uranium is placed into a nuclear core that is inserted into a nuclear reactor. Because the uranium is radioactive, this is a very dangerous process that requires a lot of safety precautions.

Fission

A neutron is blasted into the uranium to create a chain reaction fission process. This process causes the uranium to break down and split apart. The chain reaction creates heat.

Water

The heat from the fission process heats a water tank that sits above the uranium. The heated water turns into steam and travels through high-pressured pipes.

Energy

The steam pipes blast out onto turbines that spin from the steam. The turbines are connected to a generator that turns and produces power. The radioactive water is either dumped or reused and more energy is created.