Topic summary
Nuclear fission reactor
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Nuclear reactor.
Terminology
The term "nuclear reactor" is predominantly used to refer to nuclear fission reactors. It can also refer to a nuclear fusion reactor, of which only net negative power systems have been constructed. Radioisotope thermoelectric generators and radioisotope heater units, while deriving power from nuclear decay reactions, are not referred to as nuclear reactors as they do not induce reactions.