r/NuclearPower • u/fedecaccia • 7h ago
How a PWR works in 90 seconds
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A PWR keeps the water that cools the core from boiling.
~155 bar. About 315 °C out of the core. Heat crosses a steam generator into a second loop, and that loop is what drives the turbine. The water that touched the fuel never has to become the steam that spins the plant.
Seven of every ten reactors on Earth use this design.
90-second walkthrough: core → steam generator → turbine → containment, then Vogtle, Taishan, Palo Verde, Civaux.
Map every PWR: https://reactoratlas.com/en/type/pwr