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A turbine spins, converting heat into kinetic energy. The turbine rotates an electrical generator which is attached to it. The entire process typically looks like this: 1. In a nuclear reactor core, atomic nuclei are split by carefully controlled neutron particles. This releases a lot of energy, mostly in the form of heat. 2. The heat from the core is used to heat a liquid, the primary fluid. 3. The primary fluid passes through a heat exchanger and passes its heat to a secondary fluid, ordinary water This is done to keep the primary fluid in the reactor containment. 4. The secondary fluid (water) is kept under very high pressure so that it can produce high-temperature steam which is directed through jets aimed at the turbine blades, making the turbine spin. In this way, the heat from the core that has been carried by the primary fluid and secondary steam is converted into kinetic energy. 5. The spinning turbine is attached to an electical generator, which converts the kinetic energy of the spinning turbine to electrical energy. 6. The electrical energy is carried by wires to a transformer network which sends it into the distribution grid, where it is carried to users. In a ship or submarine, it is possible to connect the turbine to both an electrical generator and a torque converter (think "automatic transmission"), so that the turbine can drive the propellers directly while the generator is producing electricity. This eliminates the losses of using electric motors to turn the propellers. It is also possible to use separate turbines for propulsion and electrical generation.
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