spent fuel
Post-reactor nuclear waste
Spent fuel is nuclear fuel that has been used in a reactor until it can no longer efficiently sustain a chain reaction.
Though "spent," it remains highly radioactive and thermally hot, requiring careful storage in cooling pools or dry casks.
The term appears frequently in discussions of nuclear waste disposal: The plant has accumulated decades of spent fuel with nowhere to send it.
- uraniumElement ninety-two
- fissionNuclear breakup releasing energy
- plutoniumActinide, atomic number 94
- radioactive wasteHazardous nuclear byproducts
- nuclear wasteRadioactive disposal material
vitrification · storage facility · chain reaction · reprocessing · isotopes · reactor core · radiation shielding · decommissioning · nuclear · enrichment · neutron · radiation · control rods · meltdown · thermal energy · hazardous · disposal · containment
- Hanford SiteManhattan Project, nuclear waste, radioactive waste, tank farms, downwinders
- Nuclearnuclear reactor, atomic bomb, nuclear energy, atomic bombs, uranium
- nuclear energynuclear power, nuclear reactors, nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, uranium
- Nuclear Plantsreactor, reactor core, control rods, cooling tower, control room
- Nuclear Powernuclear reactors, nuclear plants, nuclear waste, uranium, plutonium
- nuclear physicsnuclear energy, fission, nuclear fission, neutron, proton