What is a nuclear power plant?

NUCLEAR technology was used in the 1940s to make bombs, but has been developed to generate energy since the 1950s.

Around a tenth of the world's electricity, and a fifth of the United States' electricity comes from nuclear energy.

What is a nuclear power plant?

Nuclear power plants (NPP) are thermal power stations that use nuclear reactors to generate energy.

NPPs generate electricity through nuclear fission, a process where low-enriched uranium atoms are split in a nuclear reactor.

In June 1954 the first nuclear power plant began operating in Obninsk, USSR.

The world's first full-scale power station opened in Calder Hall in Northern England two years later.

How does a nuclear power plant work?

Nuclear power is regarded as a largely clean and efficient means of energy production.

NPPs produce electricity through nuclear fission, this is the process of splitting atoms.

In order to generate electricity, bundles of uranium rods are used as nuclear fuel and are inserted into a nuclear reactor.

The rods of uranium are placed into the reactor where they are surrounded by water.

The reactor splits the uranium atoms which causes the water in the reactor to boil, this produces steam which spins the turbines and produces electricity.

Nuclear fission like this is seen as an efficient method of energy production.

This is because the amount of energy created from one uranium pellet is equal to the amount generated from a ton of coal.

Nuclear fission does not emit greenhouse gasses and can generate electricity on a large scale, without interruption or the creation of harmful by-products.