The nuclear reactor is the nuclear heart of mankind.

The discovery of the neutron was a harbinger of the atomic age of mankind, because in the hands of physicists there was a particle capable, thanks to the lack of charge, to penetrate into any, even heavy, nuclei. During experiments on bombardment of uranium nuclei by neutrons, conducted by the Italian physicist E. Fermi, radioactive isotopes and transuranium elements - neptunium and plutonium - were obtained. Thus, it became possible to create a nuclear reactor - an installation superior in its energy power to everything that was created before by mankind.

The nuclear reactor is an apparatus where a controlled nuclear decay reaction takes place, based on the chain principle. This principle is as follows. Uranium nuclei bombarded by neutrons decay and form several new neutrons, which, in turn, cause the fission of the following nuclei. With this process, the number of neutrons increases rapidly. The ratio of the number of neutrons in one fission phase to the number of neutrons of the previous phase of nuclear decay is called the multiplication factor.

In order for the nuclear reaction to be controlled, an atomic reactor is needed, which is used at nuclear power plants, submarines, nuclear icebreakers, in experimental nuclear facilities, etc. Uncontrolled nuclear reaction inevitably leads to an explosion of colossal destructive power. This type of chain reaction is used exclusively in nuclear bombs, the explosion of which is the goal of nuclear disintegration.

Atomic reactor, in which the released neutrons move with enormous speed, is equipped with special materials absorbing part of the energy of elementary particles in order to control the reaction . Similar materials, which have the ability to reduce the velocity and reduce the inertia of the motion of neutrons, are called retarders of the nuclear reaction.

The principle of operation of an atomic reactor is as follows. The internal cavities of the reactor are filled with distilled water circulating inside special tubes. The nuclear reactor is automatically switched on when the graphite rods that absorb some of the neutron energy are removed from the core. With the onset of the chain reaction, a colossal amount of thermal energy is released, which, circulating in the core of the reactor, reaches the fuel cells. The water is heated to a temperature of 320 ^o C.

Then the water of the primary circuit, moving inside the tubes of the steam generator, gives the heat energy taken from the core of the reactor to the water of the second circuit, without touching it, which eliminates the entry of radioactive particles outside the reactor hall.

The further process does not differ from what is happening at any thermal power station - the water of the second circuit, which has turned into steam, gives rotation to the turbines. And the turbines activate giant electric generators, which generate electrical energy.

The nuclear reactor is not a purely human invention. Since the same laws of physics operate throughout the universe, the energy of nuclear decay is necessary to maintain the harmonious structure of the cosmos and life on Earth. The natural natural nuclear reactor is a star. And one of them is the Sun, which by its energy of thermonuclear synthesis created all the conditions for the birth of life on our planet.