Nuclear Power Plant Diagram Unlabeled

All 13 parts on the diagram

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The plant 10

Containment building The domed concrete building that covers the reactor.
Steam generator Hot reactor water in its tubes boils other water into steam.
Turbine Steam spins it.
Generator Turned by the turbine, it produces electricity.
Condenser It turns the used steam back into water.
Cooling tower It passes leftover heat from the cooling water to the air.
Pressurizer It controls the pressure of the water in the primary loop.
Pumps They keep the water moving round its loop.
Primary loop Carries hot water from the reactor to the steam generator and back.
Secondary loop Carries steam to the turbine and water back again.

The reactor vessel 3

Reactor vessel The thick-walled tank that holds the core and its water.
Fuel rods (reactor core) Sealed metal tubes of uranium pellets. Fission in them makes heat.
Control rods Pushed in, they slow the reaction; drawn out, they speed it.

How this list was compiled: Every name checked on 2026-09-30 and kept only where at least two of these use it. (1) US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Pressurized Water Reactors, https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/power/pwrs.html , and its glossary entries Pressurizer, Cooling tower and Pressurized-water reactor, https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/pressurizer.html , https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/cooling-tower.html and https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/basic-ref/glossary/pressurized-water-reactor-pwr.html (nrc.gov refuses scripted requests, so each was read in its Internet Archive copy at web.archive.org): core, reactor vessel, fuel assemblies, primary coolant loop, steam generator, secondary loop, steamline, turbine, generator, condenser, pumps, pressurizer, cooling tower. (2) US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy, Nuclear 101: How Does a Nuclear Reactor Work?, https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nuclear-101-how-does-nuclear-reactor-work , with the Energy Information Administration's pages https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/nuclear-power-plants.php and https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/nuclear/nuclear-power-plants-types-of-reactors.php (one department, one source): fuel rods, fuel assembly, core, reactor vessel, control rods, steam generator and its tubes, turbine, generator, containment dome, cooling tower. (3) Wikipedia, Pressurized water reactor, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pressurized_water_reactor : reactor pressure vessel, fuel rods, control rods, pressurizer, steam generator, primary and secondary coolant, pumps, turbine, generator, condenser, cooling towers, containment building. Licence: own work

The drawing: Own drawing from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

This nuclear power plant diagram is unlabeled: a line leads off each of its thirteen parts, ten on the plant and three in the reactor vessel below, with nothing written at its end. It prints on one sheet.

Read the full guide

Nuclear power plant diagram no labels: a word bank

The plant: condenser, containment building, cooling tower, generator, pressurizer, primary loop, pumps, secondary loop, steam generator, turbine. The reactor vessel: control rods, fuel rods, reactor vessel. Write the list on the board, or leave it off for a harder sheet.

Parts that get swapped

The steam generator is the tallest tank inside the dome; the generator is the rounded box on the turbine's wide end. The pressurizer is the small tank between the two larger ones. The primary loop is the pipework inside the dome, and the secondary loop is the pipework that leaves it.

The reactor vessel is drawn twice: small inside the dome, with no line, and large in the lower drawing, where its line is.
For a younger class, fold the sheet under the plant and there are ten names to write.

Questions and answers

Where does fission occur in a nuclear power plant?

In the fuel rods, which stand together as the reactor core inside the reactor vessel. On the sheet that is the lower drawing: the bundle of thin upright rods low down in the vessel.

Is this a PWR or a BWR diagram?

A PWR, a pressurized water reactor: pressure keeps the reactor's water from boiling, and a steam generator makes the steam. In a boiling water reactor (BWR) the water turns to steam inside the reactor vessel, so that diagram has no steam generator.

What does the pressurizer do?

It holds the pressure of the primary loop steady, so the reactor's water stays liquid. It is a separate tank joined to the loop and partly filled with water, which electric heaters keep at its boiling point.

How many fuel rods are in a nuclear reactor?

Tens of thousands. Typically more than 200 rods are bundled into one fuel assembly, and the core of a pressurized water reactor holds 150 to 200 assemblies. The sheet draws nine rods to stand for them all.

Where are the answers to the nuclear power plant diagram?

On the answer key, a second sheet: the same two drawings with a name at the end of every line. For the rods the key writes Fuel rods (reactor core), so either name is right on a filled-in sheet.