ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the types of particles that are important to the behavior of a nuclear power plant. Each nuclear particle has a specific terminology associated with it as well as a distinct set of nuclear properties, which are called mass, spin, and charge. The chapter examines these properties in more detail and describes some of the reactions that can occur in an operating reactor. Compared to the proton or the neutron, the electron is a much lighter particle, which circles the nucleus of an atom in complex electronic orbits called orbitals or shells. Electrons, like protons and neutrons, are matter particles because they have real mass, even when they are at rest. In addition to the proton, the neutron, the electron, and the photon, there is another particle that frequently appears in the decay of certain radioactive materials.
