How To Drive a Nuclear Reactor touches on the physics behind nuclear reactors and has a fair bit on their engineering constraints and challenges, but it is primarily a "how to operate" guide. The focus is on the overall layout and control systems of a pressurised water reactor (though other types of reactor are considered), looking at the relationships between its different components and the sequence of operations needed to start it, modify its power output, respond to failures, shut it down, and so forth. Reducing power output, for example, requires not just moving control rods but managing boron levels and worrying about xenon.

There's a level of detail in this that few readers are likely to remember — let alone ever need — but it is useful in illustrating the broader picture and is presented engagingly. And Tucker uses the technical material as background to some broader topics: How hard would it be for someone to build their own reactor? What went wrong in those famous reactor disasters? Are all those alternative reactor designs hype? And so forth.

February 2026

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