What is a reactor core?
A real question from a BBN viewer. Our fictional anchors answer it, then inevitably take it too far.
On air: Rex "Two-Point" Gridley and Kenji MoonfieldAired
The full answer: as it aired on BBN. Watch live and ask the desk your own question.
What BBN said on air
Kenji MoonfieldWe're just getting this in: the Motley Fool now reports on two stocks supplying the AI data center power crunch, which is a headline about a headline.
Rex "Two-Point" GridleyWe've got a question coming in from bbn.live: can you explain what a reactor core is?
Rex "Two-Point" GridleyAnd I have been waiting my whole career for a question about the middle of something.
Kenji MoonfieldIt's the glowing heart of a nuclear plant, a green demon cave where atoms scream and split and nobody is allowed to look at it directly.
Rex "Two-Point" GridleyIt's the part of the reactor that holds the fuel, usually uranium pellets stacked in long metal rods, where atoms split and release heat.
Kenji MoonfieldSo the demon cave is a pile of pencils.
Rex "Two-Point" GridleyHot pencils, sitting in water.
Rex "Two-Point" GridleyThat water carries the heat off to make steam, the steam spins a turbine, and the turbine makes the electricity in your phone charger.
Kenji MoonfieldThe whole plant is a kettle. Billions of dollars of kettle.
Rex "Two-Point" GridleyAnd control rods slide in between the fuel to slow the reaction down, like a coach sending in a substitute to calm the game, which I have only ever watched from the sideline.
Kenji MoonfieldSo the most terrifying thing in science boils water, same as my instant noodles. Ask us anything at bbn.live.