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The nuclear fuel cycle, also called nuclear fuel chain, is the progression of nuclear fuel through a series of differing stages. It consists of steps in the front end , which are the preparation of the fuel, steps in the service period in which the fuel is used during reactor operation, and steps in the back end , which are necessary to safely ...
The fuel element or assembly is arranged in an array of cells or bundles. Each bundle consists of multiple fuel rods or pins. Each fuel rod is composed of several cylindrical fuel pellets of enriched uranium, typically as UO 2 inserted into zirconium-alloy tubes. Each reactor core can be loaded with multiple bundles of these reactor bundles.
Nuclear reactors with water moderator require at least some enrichment of 235 U. Nuclear reactors with heavy water or graphite moderation can operate with natural uranium, eliminating altogether the need for enrichment and preventing the fuel from being useful for nuclear weapons; the CANDU power reactors used in Canadian power plants are an ...
The total mass of uranium in the fuel assembly is 114.7 kg. The fuel burnup is 20 MW·d/kg. The total length of the fuel assembly is 10.025 m, with 6.862 m of the active region. In addition to the regular fuel assemblies, there are instrumented ones, containing neutron flux detectors in the central carrier.
Nuclear fuel process A graph comparing nucleon number against binding energy Close-up of a replica of the core of the research reactor at the Institut Laue-Langevin. Nuclear fuel refers to any substance, typically fissile material, which is used by nuclear power stations or other nuclear devices to generate energy.
A typical RPV. Russian Soviet era RBMK reactors have each fuel assembly enclosed in an individual 8 cm diameter pipe rather than having a pressure vessel. Whilst most power reactors do have a pressure vessel, they are generally classified by the type of coolant rather than by the configuration of the vessel used to contain the coolant.
At Indian Point nuclear power plant, 125 hardened casks of spent radioactive fuel sit idle, waiting until someone can figure out how to safely transport and dispose of them.. So far, no one's come ...
The nuclear fuel cycle employs a full actinide recycle with two major options: One is an intermediate-size (150–600 MWe) sodium-cooled reactor with uranium-plutonium-minor-actinide-zirconium metal alloy fuel, supported by a fuel cycle based on pyrometallurgical reprocessing in facilities integrated with the reactor. The second is a medium to ...