Question

Nuclear reactors use fuel rods to heat water and generate steam. Is this process endothermic or exothermic?

Answer 1

The heat produced by the nuclear reactor is an exothermic process while the heat absorbed by the water to convert into steam is an endothermic process.

Step-by-step explanation:

Nuclear reactor being the heat of a nuclear power plant uses the radioactive uranium fuel to generate the heat by the process of nuclear fission in a controlled manner.

The processing of uranium is carried out into small ceramic pellets which are stacked together into sealed metal tubes known as fuel rods.

Usually more than 200 such rods are bunched together leading to the formation of a fuel assembly.

The core of the reactor is often made up of a couple hundred assemblies, according to its power level.

Inside the reactor vessel, these fuel rods are immersed into water which serve as both a coolant and moderator. The moderator helps slow down the neutrons produced by fission to sustain the chain reaction.

Answer 2

Step-by-step explanation:

Exothermic reaction is defined as the reaction in which release of heat takes place. This also means that in an exothermic reaction, bond energies of reactants is less than the bond energies of products.

Hence, difference between the energies between the reactants and products releases as heat and therefore, enthalpy of the system will decrease.

Whereas in an endothermic reaction, heat is supplied from outside and absorbed by the reactant molecules. Hence, enthalpy of the system increases.

As water acts as a coolent and when fuel rods in a nuclear reactor are immersed in it then heat created by coolent is absorbed by water and then it changes into steam.

Since, absorption of heat occurs in the nuclear reactor. Therefore, it is an endothermic reaction.

Thus, we can conclude that nuclear reactors use fuel rods to heat water and generate steam. This process is endothermic.