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Used nuclear fuel is a complex mixture of the fission products, uranium, plutonium, and the transplutonium metals. In fuel which has been used at high temperature in power reactors it is common for the fuel to be heterogeneous; often the fuel will contain nanoparticles of platinum group metals such as palladium. Also the fuel may well have ...
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and, depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle , it will have different isotopic ...
A fission nuclear power plant is generally composed of: a nuclear reactor, in which the nuclear reactions generating heat take place; a cooling system, which removes the heat from inside the reactor; a steam turbine, which transforms the heat into mechanical energy; an electric generator, which transforms the mechanical energy into electrical ...
Heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid coolant. In commercial reactors, this drives turbines connected to electrical generator shafts. The heat can also be used for district heating, and industrial applications including desalination and hydrogen production. Some reactors are used to produce isotopes for medical and industrial use.
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 light-water reactor produces heat by controlled nuclear fission. The nuclear reactor core is the portion of a nuclear reactor where the nuclear reactions take place. It mainly consists of nuclear fuel and control elements. The pencil-thin nuclear fuel rods, each about 12 feet (3.7 m) long, are grouped by the hundreds in bundles called fuel ...
Nuclear fusion is the reverse of nuclear fission, which powers the nuclear plants we’re all familiar with. Fission splits atoms of very heavy, unstable isotopes like uranium 235 and captures the ...
This radioisotope can be released from the nuclear fuel cycle; this is the radioisotope responsible for the majority of the dose experienced by the population as a result of the activities of the nuclear power industry. [citation needed] Nuclear bomb tests have increased the specific activity of carbon, whereas the use of fossil fuels has ...