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In a fission nuclear reactor, uranium-238 can be used to generate plutonium-239, which itself can be used in a nuclear weapon or as a nuclear-reactor fuel supply. In a typical nuclear reactor, up to one-third of the generated power comes from the fission of 239 Pu, which is not supplied as a fuel to the reactor, but rather, produced from 238 U. [5] A certain amount of production of 239
A breeder reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates more fissile material than it consumes. [1] These reactors can be fueled with more-commonly available isotopes of uranium and thorium, such as uranium-238 and thorium-232, as opposed to the rare uranium-235 which is used in conventional reactors.
The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory was packaged in a customized metal case. The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab is a toy lab set designed to allow children to create and watch nuclear and chemical reactions using radioactive material. The Atomic Energy Lab was released by the A. C. Gilbert Company in 1950.
Pu-239 is produced artificially in nuclear reactors when a neutron is absorbed by U-238, forming U-239, which then decays in a rapid two-step process into Pu-239. [22] It can then be separated from the uranium in a nuclear reprocessing plant. [23] Weapons-grade plutonium is defined as being predominantly Pu-239, typically about 93% Pu-239. [24]
It's one of the world's biggest suppliers of high-grade uranium, selling $2.6 billion worth of nuclear fuel last year, turning $339 million of it into net income thanks to its low-cost operation ...
In a nuclear reactor, non-fissile isotopes capture a neutron breeding fissile isotopes. 234 U is converted to 235 U more easily and therefore at a greater rate than uranium-238 is to plutonium-239 (via neptunium-239), because 238 U has a much smaller neutron-capture cross section of just 2.7 barns.
The 235 U is fissile, meaning it is easily split with neutrons while the remainder is 238 U, but in nature, more than 99% of the extracted ore is 238 U. Most nuclear reactors require enriched uranium, which is uranium with higher concentrations of 235 U ranging between 3.5% and 4.5% (although a few reactor designs using a graphite or heavy ...
A fission fragment reactor is a nuclear reactor that generates electricity by decelerating an ion beam of fission byproducts instead of using nuclear reactions to generate heat. By doing so, it bypasses the Carnot cycle and can achieve efficiencies of up to 90% instead of 40–45% attainable by efficient turbine-driven thermal reactors.