In today's world we are so closely connected with electricity that it is almost impossible to imagine a single moment without electricity. Every aspect of our life uses electricity in one way or another. Keeping this demand for electricity in mind, scientists have been trying since the beginning how to produce more electricity with less damage to the environment at a lower cost. As a result, nuclear power came to the fore. Whereas 820 grams of carbon dioxide is emitted in generating 1 unit of electricity through coal, nuclear power plants emit only 12 grams of carbon dioxide. Today we are talking about how nuclear power plants generate electricity at low cost. So let's know about nuclear power plant.
A major part of the world's total electricity generation is from thermal power plants. Thermal power plants produce electricity from heat. And to obtain this heat energy we use known fuels such as oil, gas, coal.
On the other hand, Uranium-235 isotope is used to obtain thermal energy in nuclear power plants. The peculiarity of the uranium atom is that if uranium is struck by an atom, the mass number of the uranium atom changes from 235 to 236. As a result, the atom becomes unstable. These unstable atoms then undergo four types of changes.
First: The uranium atom splits into two completely different elements, krypton and barium.
Second: Radioactive rays are emitted.
Third: Energy is released.
This amount of energy is equal to 200 Mega Electro Volts which is a huge amount of electricity. Finally three more electrons are emitted. These three newly emitted electrons hit three more uranium atoms in the vicinity. In this way they hurt each other. This starts a chain reaction called nuclear fission reaction.
Thus the 200 Mega Electro Volts of thermal energy obtained with each atom breaking is required mainly to produce electricity.
Uranium bundles are mainly used as fuel for nuclear power plants. Uranium bundles are made from uranium through several complex chemical processes after extracting uranium from the mine (we have another article about how uranium bundles are made from uranium ore, you can read it if you want). This is a typical picture of a nuclear power plant.
A nuclear power plant basically consists of four parts. They are: Reactor, Steam Generator, Electric Generator and Cooling Tower. Uranium bundles are usually placed inside the reactor. The control rod is placed in the gap between these bundles. These control rods are usually made of boron, cadmium, silver or indium. The function of the control rod is to control the nuclear fission reaction inside the reactor. The control rod does this by absorbing control. For this the control rod is positioned so that the reactor rod can be moved in or out as required. The reactor control rod and uranium are completely filled with water. Then the entire reactor is surrounded by one meter thick concrete walls. So that when the nuclear fission reaction starts inside it, the radioactive rays released from it cannot come into contact with the atmosphere. When the nuclear fission reaction starts in the reactor it starts to heat up. As a result, the temperature of the water in the reactor starts to rise. Water temperature is limited to 570 degrees Fahrenheit or 298.89 (~300) degrees Celsius. But the uranium rod will continue to heat up. As a result, excess heat is transferred to the steam generator through the heat exchanger. This thermal energy heats the water in the steam generator. As a result, the water slowly turns into steam. Thus the vapor pressure increases as steam is formed. If the pressure of this steam is sufficient, this high pressure steam is injected into the turbine. As a result the turbine starts to rotate. An electric motor is connected to the other end of the turbine. The rotation of the turbine starts the rotation of the electric motor. As a result, electricity is generated in the electric motor. The high pressure steam enters by rotating it. The height of the cooling tower is about 200 meters. Cooling towers work like condensers. Which cools the hot steam coming from the turbine into liquid. This liquid water is pumped back to the steam generator. Again enters the turbine. Thus this process continues and the electric motor continues to generate electricity. This is how nuclear power plants produce electricity from uranium. 2,270 liters of oil will be needed to produce the amount of electricity that can be produced from just 1 gram of uranium in a nuclear power plant. Typically, the uranium bundles in the reactor are replaced every three to five years. Although the bundles look exactly the same as before, there is no visible change. But that doesn't mean the rods in the uranium bundle will stop heating. These rods will continue to heat up for the next hundreds of millions of years.