Much of the effects of a meltdown is still theory, but there is some supporting information from the Three Mile Island meltdown. If the experts should be wrong, and a catastrophic meltdown in reality may occur, now is the time to learn about possible effects and their prevention. Also, radiation can drift across international boundaries and affect everyone it reaches. Power plants that generate electricity from nuclear energy are not so very different from other kinds of power plants. Inside the generator, coils of wire and magnetic fields interact to create electricity.
Nothing is burned or exploded in a nuclear power plant.
The uranium is formed into ceramic pellets about the size of the end of your finger. These pellets are inserted into long, vertical tubes within the reactor. This sequence of one fission triggering others, and those triggering still more, is called a chain reaction. When the atoms split they also release heat. The nuclear reaction is controlled by rods inserted among the tubes holding the fuel.