A Beginners Guide to Nuclear Power 17 March 2011 by James Tulloch A picture shows the nuclear fuel rod storage inside the nuclear power plant in the swiss town of Leibstadt.(Source: Reuters) Confused by nuclear cores, containment vessels, and cooling systems? Here are some explanations to help you understand how nuclear power works, what a meltdown really means, and the radiation risks Japan's nuclear crisis provoked doubts fears, and hysterical outbursts. Headlines like 'nuclear explosionand apocaly pse'didn't help. Neither did the industr history of secrecy and cover-ups So heres the science behind some of the jargon you may have encountered since the March 11, 2011 tsunami pushed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the edge of catastrophe How does a nuclear reaction happen? Power plant nuclear reactions are 'fission reactions. Fission is the splitting up of the nucleus of an atom of a heavy element-us ually uranium or plutonium. It is done by bombarding atoms with neutrons Fission generates huge amounts of energy in the form of heat. It also generates radioactive gamma rays and neutrons that zoom around the reactor core cat more fission as they collide with other atoms thereby creating a chain reactionA Beginner’s Guide to Nuclear Power 17 March 2011 by James Tulloch A picture shows the nuclear fuel rod storage inside the nuclear power plant in the Swiss town of Leibstadt. (Source: Reuters) Confused by nuclear cores, containment vessels, and cooling systems? Here are some explanations to help you understand how nuclear power works, what a meltdown really means, and the radiation risks. Japan’s nuclear crisis provoked doubts, fears, and hysterical outbursts. Headlines like ‘nuclear explosion’ and ‘apocalypse’ didn’t help. Neither did the industry’s history of secrecy and cover-ups. So here’s the science behind some of the jargon you may have encountered since the March 11, 2011 tsunami pushed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the edge of catastrophe. How does a nuclear reaction happen? Power plant nuclear reactions are ‘fission’ reactions. Fission is the splitting up of the nucleus of an atom of a heavy element—usually uranium or plutonium. It is done by bombarding atoms with neutrons. Fission generates huge amounts of energy in the form of heat. It also generates radioactive gamma rays and neutrons that zoom around the reactor core causing more fission as they collide with other atoms, thereby creating a ‘chain reaction’