fission reaction

Some facilities at the national lab were mothballed; the reactor used in that key 1951 effort to harness a fission reaction was converted into a museum; and a massive containment dome was weeks away from demolition when Energy Department officials decided in 2018 that it might still be useful.

The lengthy gap speaks to the challenges of harnessing a fission reaction.

Although no such power plants exist, they would in theory employ a loop of liquid fuel—uranium dissolved in hot salt—to both sustain the fission reaction and transport the resulting heat.

That’s a process in which all control rods are inserted into the reactor core to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure.

That means control rods have been inserted into the reactor core to stop the nuclear fission reaction and generation of heat and pressure.