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| Nuclear Power Plant |
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In a nuclear power plant use is made of the fission reaction. Most power plants produce electricity by first boiling water to produce steam. The steam is used to spin a turbine. The shaft of the turbine spins the generator (a large coil of wire) between two magnets. The spinning coil of wire generates electricity by electromagnetic induction.
The main difference between a nuclear power plant and other kinds of power plants lies in the way the water is heated to steam. In a nuclear power plant, heat is produced by nuclear fission - splitting atoms - rather than, for example, the combustion of oil, gas, or coal. A nuclear reactor is a device in which nuclear chain reactions are initiated, controlled, and sustained at a steady rate. The heat produced is carried away by a heat exchange system and then turned into electrical energy via a generator system.
The diagram below shows one of the earliest types of reactor - a Magnox reactor - most of these are in the process of being decommisioned now.
Several types of nuclear reactor have been built in Britain. Commercial reactors commissioned between 1956 and 1973 were of the gas-cooled Magnox design. Between 1976 and 1988, seven advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs) were built.
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