How do nuclear reactions generate electricity?

In nuclear power plants, nuclear reactions cause radioactive elements to decay into lighter elements, producing electricity.

An illustration of this would be the use of uranium-235 in nuclear fission reactors, where the atom of uranium emits an alpha particle, or a helium nucleus, and decays by alpha particle emission into the element thorium-231. This element is radioactive and can decay further into the element radium-229. It is in the same series as uranium in the periodic table, the actinides series.

Both of these elements are part of the uranium decay series, and they will keep decaying until they get to an element's stable isotope—in this case, lead-207.

Nuclear reactions generate electricity through a process called nuclear fission. In nuclear power plants, uranium atoms are split in a controlled manner, releasing a large amount of energy in the form of heat. This heat is used to boil water and produce steam, which then drives turbines connected to generators, producing electricity.