Extracting the rods to a calculated height allows the reactor to reach criticality — the point at which the nuclear fission reactions reach a self-sustaining level.
A sustained nuclear reaction in the reactor produces heat that is used to boil water.
A reactimeter is a diagnostic device used in nuclear power plants (and other nuclear applications) for measuring the reactivity (in inhours) of fissile materials as they approach criticality.
Nuclear chain reaction, a basic parameter describing kinetics and dynamics of nuclear reactors
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The Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd, who was residing in the United States at the time, realized that the neutron-driven fission of heavy atoms could be used to create a nuclear chain reaction that could yield vast amounts of energy for electric power generation or atomic bombs.
It is named after Enrico Fermi, the Nobel Prize winner and physicist who produced the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.