Anuclear fission reactor produces electricity. what is the role of the fuel, the control rods, water, and generator in this process?

a reactor core full of water is heated to steam by the fission reaction that occurs inside control rods full of radioactive fuel pellets. the generator collects the emitted particles as the radioactive nuclei collide and transfers them to the power grid.

fuel rods heat a pool of water to steam as heat from the fission reaction of the yellowcake inside is transferred to the water. the control rods are used to control the rate of electricity leaving the generator as it converts mechanical energy from a steam-powered turbine into electrical energy.

a generator is used to activate the control rods which contain radioactive isotopes. once activated, these isotopes begin a nuclear fission chain reaction. water in a cooling tank keeps the rate of reaction under control as electrons emitted from the reaction are fed through wires to homes and businesses.

the radioactive isotopes used as fuel provide the heat energy to create steam from water through a nuclear fission chain reaction. the control rods are used to regulate the rate of this fission reaction. the generator converts mechanical energy from a steam-powered turbine into electricity.

The first law of thermodynamics states that heat added to a system is neither created nor destroyed but is transformed ⇒ as it changes into other forms of energy.

Aheat engine running backward is called a refrigerator if its purpose is to extract heat from a cold reservoir. the same engine running backward is called a heat pump if its purpose is to exhaust warm air into the hot reservoir. heat pumps are widely used for home heating. you can think of a heat pump as a refrigerator that is cooling the already cold outdoors and, with its exhaust heat qh, warming the indoors. perhaps this seems a little silly, but consider the following. electricity can be directly used to heat a home by passing an electric current through a heating coil. this is a direct, 100% conversion of work to heat. that is, 19.0 \rm kw of electric power (generated by doing work at the rate 19.0 kj/s at the power plant) produces heat energy inside the home at a rate of 19.0 kj/s. suppose that the neighbor's home has a heat pump with a coefficient of performance of 4.00, a realistic value. note: with a refrigerator, "what you get" is heat removed. but with a heat pump, "what you get" is heat delivered. so the coefficient of performance of a heat pump is k=qh/win. an average price for electricity is about 40 mj per dollar. a furnace or heat pump will run typically 200 hours per month during the winter. what does one month's heating cost in the home with a 16.0 kw electric heater? what does one month's heating cost in the home of a neighbor who uses a heat pump to provide the same amount of heating?

If you wanted to move an electron from the positive to the negative terminal of the battery, how much work w would you need to do on the electron? enter your answer numerically in joules.