Describe the following energy transfers:
generation of electrical energy.
thermal energy from fuels.
nuclear energy to electrical energy.
This could be a pretty good thread. I hate the magic beans answers.
You don't generate electrical energy, it is always there. The electron is indivisible and neither created nor destroyed unless you are talking about pair production. You convert one form of energy to another using electricity as a coupling method between different power conversion equipment types. The electron can be raised in its energy level.
Fuels are mostly oxidizing reactions using oxygen from the air in a combustion process that is exothermic, a chemical reaction that gives off heat. The electrical mechanism that accomplishes this through the electron orbitals, molecular bonding and electron energy level changes giving off photon radiation is a fascinating area of study.
Nukes, another fascinating area. Going from memory the typical nuke reaction, there are two common Uranium isotopes, I forget maybe U 233 and U 236. The less reactive species is refined to accumulate more of the reactive species, which splts apart under neutron bombardment, producing Boron and one other atom, the other half of the U fission, heat, additional neutrons which participate in the neutron bombardment U fission reaction. There are certainly other atomic reactions besides U fission.
The heat is transferred through heat exchangers to the steam loop that drives the turbines, turbines driive the generator, steam is recondensed and sent back to the stream boiler, and back through the turbine again. Electrical generators that have a single stage steam turbine engine have a hard time getting up over 35% efficiency.
There are probably some nuke power engineers on the board who can explain how little I know about it, but it's interesting. Wikipedia would probably give you a better answer.
