The atomic masses are all different because the number of neutrons in the atoms nuclei vary. Take uranium for example, it has 92 protons, but some atoms of uranium have 146 neutrons, while others have 143 neutrons. The atoms with the same element that have different atomic masses are called isotopes. Most of the atoms of uranium contain 146 neutrons and have a mass of 238 amu. This form of uranium is commonly called U-238. Another form called U-235 has an atomic mass of 235. Both U-238 and U-235 are isotopes of uranium.
Just as there are different approaches to designing cars, and clothes, engineers develop new ways to make different types of nuclear power plants. There are two different types of nuclear power plants in the United States and they are boiling-water reactors (BWR's), and pressurized-water reactors (PWR's). For BWR's, the water heated by the reactor is core turns directly into steam in the reactor vessel and is then used to power the turbine-generator. In a PWR, the water passing through the reactor core is kept under pressure so that it does not turn to steam at all, but remains liquid. The steam that drives the turbine is generated in a separate piece of equipment called a steam generator. A steam generator is a giant cylinder with thousands of tubes in it through which the hot radioactive water can flow. In the steam generator, the outside tubes boil non-radioactive water and it eventually turns into steam. The clean water may come from one of many sources such as oceans, lakes or rivers. The radioactive water flows back to the reactor core, where its reheated, only to flow back to the steam generator. Roughly seventy percent of the reactors operating in the U.S. are PWR.
Nuclear reactors are basically machines that contain and control chain reactions, while releasing heat at a controlled rate. The reactors supply the heat to turn water into steam in electric power plants, which drive the turbine-generators.