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Unenriched natural uranium is appropriate fuel for a heavy-water reactor, like a CANDU reactor. On rare occasions, earlier in geologic history when uranium-235 was more abundant, uranium ore was found to have naturally engaged in fission, forming natural nuclear fission reactors .
Mixed oxide, or MOX fuel, is a blend of plutonium and natural or depleted uranium which behaves similarly (though not identically) to the enriched uranium feed for which most nuclear reactors were designed.
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235 U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation.Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 U with 99.2732–99.2752% natural abundance), uranium-235 (235 U, 0.7198–0.7210%), and uranium-234 (234 U, 0.0049–0.0059%).
Uranium-235 makes up about 0.72% of natural uranium. Unlike the predominant isotope uranium-238 , it is fissile , i.e., it can sustain a fission chain reaction . It is the only fissile isotope that is a primordial nuclide or found in significant quantity in nature.
A pressurized heavy-water reactor (PHWR) is a nuclear reactor that uses heavy water (deuterium oxide D 2 O) as its coolant and neutron moderator. [1] PHWRs frequently use natural uranium as fuel, but sometimes also use very low enriched uranium.
The CANDU reactor, which was designed to be fueled with natural uranium, is capable of using spent fuel from Light Water Reactors as fuel, since it contains more fissile material than natural uranium. Research into "DUPIC" – direct use of PWR spent fuel in CANDU type reactors – is ongoing and could increase the usability of fuel without the ...
Canada's uranium miners, confident that only they can meet U.S. demand for the element after Russian supply curbs, have accelerated output and forward contracts to supply U.S energy companies, but ...
Change of content of Uranium-235 in natural uranium; the content was 3.65% 2 billion years ago. A key factor that made the reaction possible was that, at the time the reactor went critical 1.7 billion years ago, the fissile isotope 235 U made up about 3.1% of the natural uranium, which is comparable to the amount used in some of today's reactors.