nuclear fuel cycle
Uranium processing sequence
The nuclear fuel cycle is the complete sequence of steps for using nuclear material to generate power—from mining uranium ore through enrichment, fuel fabrication, reactor use, and finally disposal or reprocessing of spent fuel.
The cycle may be "open" (waste is stored permanently) or "closed" (plutonium is extracted and recycled into new fuel).
Countries with closed fuel cycles face proliferation concerns.
- vitrificationTransformation into glass
- chain reactionSelf-sustaining causal sequence
- uranium miningOre extraction for reactors
- yellowcakeConcentrated uranium oxide powder
- plutoniumActinide, atomic number 94
thorium · reactor core · enriched uranium · control rods · criticality · spent · closed loop · hexafluoride · storage · waste · decay · half-life · conversion · fission · mining · centrifuge · cladding · fabrication
- nuclear energyuranium, plutonium, fission, fusion, reactor core
- radioactivityradioactive decay, radioactive isotopes, radioisotopes, radionuclides, half-life