Device used to initiate and control a nuclear chain reaction
This article is about nuclear fission reactors. For nuclear fusion reactors, see Fusion power.
"Nuclear pile" redirects here. For nuclear stockpiles, see List of states with nuclear weapons.
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Core of CROCUS, a small nuclear reactor used for research at the EPFL in Switzerland
A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid (water or gas), which in turn runs through steam turbines. These either drive a ship's propellers or turn electrical generators' shafts. Nuclear generated steam in principle can be used for industrial process heat or for district heating. Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use, or for production of weapons-grade plutonium. As of 2022[update], the International Atomic Energy Agency reports there are 422 nuclear power reactors and 223 nuclear research reactors in operation around the world.[1][2][3]
In the early era of nuclear reactors (1940s), a reactor was known as a nuclear pile or atomic pile (so-called because the graphite moderator blocks of the first reactor to reach criticality were stacked in a pile).[4]
^"PRIS – Home". pris.iaea.org.
^"RRDB Search". nucleus.iaea.org.
^Oldekop, W. (1982), "Electricity and Heat from Thermal Nuclear Reactors", Primary Energy, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 66–91, doi:10.1007/978-3-642-68444-9_5, ISBN 978-3-540-11307-2, retrieved 2 February 2021
^University of Chicago. "The first nuclear reactor, explained | University of Chicago News". News.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 2 August 2022.
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