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A 1 inch tall uranium fuel pellet is equivalent to about 1 ton of coal, 120 gallons of crude oil, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas. [15] In light-water reactors , 1 kg of natural uranium – following a corresponding enrichment and used for power generation– is equivalent to the energy content of nearly 10,000 kg of mineral oil or 14,000 ...
The heating value (or energy value or calorific value) of a substance, usually a fuel or food (see food energy), is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The calorific value is the total energy released as heat when a substance undergoes complete combustion with oxygen under standard conditions.
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. MOX fuel is an alternative to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors which predominate nuclear power generation.
A sample of thorium. Thorium-based nuclear power generation is fueled primarily by the nuclear fission of the isotope uranium-233 produced from the fertile element thorium.A thorium fuel cycle can offer several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle [Note 1] —including the much greater abundance of thorium found on Earth, superior physical and nuclear fuel properties, and reduced ...
Classed as a Generation IV reactor, it features a fast-neutron spectrum and closed fuel cycle for efficient conversion of fertile uranium and management of actinides. The reference reactor design is a helium - cooled system operating with an outlet temperature of 850 °C (1,560 °F) using a direct Brayton closed-cycle gas turbine for high ...
To express the efficiency of a generator or power plant as a percentage, invert the value if dimensionless notation or same unit are used. For example: A heat rate value of 5 gives an efficiency factor of 20%. A heat rate value of 2 kWh/kWh gives an efficiency factor of 50%. A heat rate value of 4 MJ/MJ gives an efficiency factor of 25%.
According to the patent application [5] the reactor design has some notable characteristics, that sets it apart from other reactor designs. It uses uranium hydride (UH 3) "low-enriched" to 5% uranium-235—the remainder is uranium-238—as the nuclear fuel, rather than the usual metallic uranium or uranium dioxide that composes the fuel rods of contemporary light-water reactors.
The reactors consisted of a huge cube of this material (the "pile") made up of many smaller blocks and drilled through horizontally to make a large number of fuel channels. Uranium fuel was placed in aluminium canisters and pushed into the channels in the front, pushing previous fuel canisters through the channel and out the back of the reactor ...