Fukushima -I

An FB friend of mine has pasted a news about the engineers in Japan who were trying very bravely to restore the electricity in a Nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan....fortunately, obviously with their iron will and enormous courage(possesing them is a fortunate thing..that what i mean to say by using the word "fortunately") they succeeded in their attempt.

Now i got little curious what does after all happen in these plants?
why are they so necessary for the human civilisation?
how does they work..their inner infrastructure?
how much threat do they contain in case something wrong happen?

Question: Lets us start with what is the nuclear reactor and why we need it?
A nuclear reactor is a device, which is usd to initiate a nuclear chain reaction, its most common use is to generate electricity, large amount of electricty.

Question: How does it generate such a large amount of electricity...and most importantly..is it same as a nuclear bomb...if not then how does it differ from it?

The large amount of electricity is generated through the large amount of heat i.e Thermal Energy which is generated through a Nuclear chain reaction..A common method of harnessing this thermal energy is to use it to boil water to produce pressurized steam which will then drive a steam turbine that generates electricity.
Though both reactors and nuclear weapons rely on nuclear chain reactions, the rate of reactions in a reactor is much slower than in a bomb.

Question: What is this "NUCLEAR CHAIN REACTION"?.......u r keep repating this without ever asking what is this stand for...not good haan...not good...

So let us see..what is this chain, and what is the reaction...and why the word which you left a long time ago..may be someof you recently..i.e. Nuclear...let us take it one by one..

start it from the least favourite one..i.e Nuclear...Nucleus has proton and neutron inside it....(god that i know the moment i came in this world...)..tell me the thing man...ok relax and listen then...
There are some fissile materials (In nuclear engineering, a fissile material is one that is capable of sustaining a chain reaction of nuclear fission!!!!) like Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239, so when the nucleus of these fissile materials absorb a neutron, their nucleus get disintgrated in two or more lighter nuclei...and in this process of disintegration there release kinetic energy, gamma radiation and free neutrons. A portion of these neutrons may later be absorbed by other fissile atoms and trigger further fission events, which release more neutrons, and so on. This is known as a nuclear chain reaction.
The most important and necessary part of this whole thing is coolant..Mostly the water is used as a coolant these water absorb the heat and carried away it form the reactor. Now there can be two things that can happen here....
Either the same water which is used as coolant will be used to move the turbine (ex: boiling water reactor)
or this water will be used to boil another water that will be converted in to steam and hence move the turbine..(in most reactors this method is applied)....basic point here is that the heat generated from the nuclear chain reaction is used to boil water and hence produce pressurized steam for the turbine....thats the whole what is a nuclear chain reaction, how they help to generate the heat and hence electricity....

But in the above explanation there are lots of things that desperately need a fair amount of explantion....
The things are:
A. Fissile Materials
B. Where does the neutrons come from to get absorb by the nucleus of the Fissile materials..
C. What does all happens with the Nucleus of the fissile atom when the nucleus absorb the Neurtons
D. How does the Trubine move through the steam, also what this presurised steam..and how it helps to move the Turbine.


I will explain all these in my next notes.

The one thing that i mnetioned above i.e the hazards that can occur due to Nuclear reactor is get explained in my another Notes "What went worng in Fukushima, Japan"



If you have any question...feel free to ask...

Cya