Seabrook - How Seabrook Works

All power plants operate in much the same way. Water is heated and turned into steam by using fuel such as coal, natural gas or oil. In a nuclear power plant, however, the fuel is uranium.

Unlike other power plants, however, nuclear power plants do not burn fuel. Instead, the process - called Fission - works this way:

• Tiny parts of the uranium, known as atoms, are made to split, or fission.
  
• During fission, even smaller particles of the atom, called neutrons, are released.
  
• The neutrons strike more uranium atoms, resulting in the release of heat needed to generate electricity.