Fission Reactors

A fission reactor contains a number of different parts: 1) nuclear fuel (the uranium isotope that will split when triggered by an incoming neutron) - the fuel is held in rods so that the neutrons released will fly out and cause nuclear fission in other rods 2) graphite core - graphite slows the neutrons down so that they are more likely to be absorbed into a nearby fuel rod 3) control rods - these are raised and lowered to stop neutrons from travelling between fuel rods and therefore change the speed of the chain reaction 4) coolant - this is heated up by the energy released from the fission reactions and is used to boil water to drive turbines in the power station 5) concrete shield - the daughter products of the fission reaction are radioactive and can be a hazard Many of the features of the reactor are designed to control the speed of the reaction and the temperature inside the shielding. An uncontrolled fission reaction is the basis of an atomic bomb