How Electricityis Generated and Nuclear Power Stations.

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Nuclear Power Stations?

A nuclear power station is where nuclear energy is used to generate electricity.

Some power plants run on coal, while others use oil, natural gas, or methane gas. In the furnace, the fuel is burned in a big furnace to release heat energy.

In the boiler, heat from the furnace flows around pipes full of cold water. The heat boils the water and turns it into steam. This energy transfer is chemical to thermal (and light).

The steam flows at a high-pressure around a turbine that's similar to a windmill made of tightly packed metal blades. The blades start rotating as the steam flows by. The steam turbine is a mechanism that converts the steam's energy into kinetic energy.

For the turbine to work efficiently, heat must penetrate it at a really high temperature and pressure and leave at as low a temperature and pressure as possible.

 In the cooling tower, steam is cooled in a condenser. Then it's sprayed into the giant cooling towers. Most of the water condenses on the walls of the towers and drips/falls back down again. Only a small amount of the water used, escapes as steam from the towers, but large amounts of heat and energy are lost.

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The turbine is linked to a generator, so the generator spins. As it spins, the generator uses the kinetic energy from the turbine to make electricity. This electricity travels out of the generator to a step up transformer. Electricity loses some of its energy as it travels down wire cables, but high-voltage electricity loses less energy than low-voltage electricity. So the electricity generated in the plant is stepped-up to a very high voltage as it leaves the power plant.

A transformer increases voltage by having a low current, which decreases heat loss. So efficiency is increased. They increase ...

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