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In nuclear engineering, fissile material is material that can undergo nuclear fission when struck by a neutron of low energy. [1] A self-sustaining thermal chain reaction can only be achieved with fissile material. The predominant neutron energy in a system may be typified by either slow neutrons (i.e., a thermal system) or fast neutrons.
These are found mixed with fission products in spent nuclear fuel and nuclear fallout. Neutron capture by materials of the nuclear reactor (shielding, cladding, etc.) or the environment (seawater, soil, etc.) produces activation products (not listed here). These are found in used nuclear reactors and nuclear fallout.
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.
UO 2 is used mainly as nuclear fuel, specifically as UO 2 or as a mixture of UO 2 and PuO 2 (plutonium dioxide) called a mixed oxide , in the form of fuel rods in nuclear reactors. The thermal conductivity of uranium dioxide is very low when compared with elemental uranium , uranium nitride , uranium carbide and zircalloy cladding material as ...
The half-life of thorium-232 (14 billion years) is more than three times the age of the Earth; thorium-232 therefore occurs in nature as a primordial nuclide.Other thorium isotopes occur in nature in much smaller quantities as intermediate products in the decay chains of uranium-238, uranium-235, and thorium-232.
A minor actinide is an actinide, other than uranium or plutonium, found in spent nuclear fuel.The minor actinides include neptunium (element 93), americium (element 95), curium (element 96), berkelium (element 97), californium (element 98), einsteinium (element 99), and fermium (element 100). [2]
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Phase diagram of UF 6. As one of the most volatile compounds of uranium, uranium hexafluoride is relatively convenient to process and is used in both of the main uranium enrichment methods, namely gaseous diffusion and the gas centrifuge method.