word 16 : reactor

reactor

n.

1. a person or thing that reacts or undergoes reaction.
2. a device whose primary purpose is to introduce reactance into a circuit.
3. a patient or animal that reacts positively towards a foreign material.
4. an apparatus in which a nuclear-fission chain reaction can be initiated, sustained, and controlled, for generating heat or producing useful radiation. also called atomic pile, chain reactor, chain-reacting pile, nuclear reactor, pile.
5. a large container, as a vat, for processes in which the substances involved undergo a reaction.