Where does fuel for nuclear reactors come from?

Where does fuel for nuclear reactors come from?

Uranium is the main fuel for nuclear reactors, and it can be found in many places around the world. In order to make the fuel, uranium is mined and goes through refining and enrichment before being loaded into a nuclear reactor.

How do you refuel a nuclear reactor?

The refueling process, like everything else, is different at every plant, but basically, the fuel is lifted with a crane, and moved to the Spent Fuel Pool where it gets stored. All manipulations are done with the fuel under water. Typically, plants only refuel 1/3 of the core for each refueling outage.

How is nuclear fuel mined?

Mining: When uranium is near the surface, miners dig the rock out of open pits. Open pit mining strips away the topsoil and rock that lie above the uranium ore. When uranium is found deep underground, miners must dig underground mines to reach it. The rock is then removed through underground tunnels.

What is the first stage of the nuclear fuel cycle?

The cycle starts with the mining of uranium and ends with the disposal of spent fuel and other radioactive waste. The raw material for today’s nuclear fuel is uranium.

What happens to spent nuclear fuel rods?

What are spent fuel pools? When fuel rods in a nuclear reactor are “spent,” or no longer usable, they are removed from the reactor core and replaced with fresh fuel rods. The spent fuel rods are still highly radioactive and continue to generate significant heat for decades.

How often is a reactor need to be refueled?

once every two years
Nuclear power plants run almost all the time, and refuel only once every two years or so. Outages typically occur in the spring or autumn when electricity demand is lowest and there is little winter heating or summer air-conditioning.

How is uranium obtained?

In a conventional uranium mine and mill, uranium ore is extracted from the Earth, typically through deep underground shafts or shallow open pits. The ore is transported to a mill, where it is crushed and undergoes a chemical process to remove the uranium. The lixiviant dissolves the uranium into the solution.

How long does nuclear fuel stay in a reactor?

Used nuclear fuel can be recycled to make new fuel and byproducts. More than 90\% of its potential energy still remains in the fuel, even after five years of operation in a reactor.

How heavy is a nuclear fuel rod?

RBMK fuel rods are about 3.65 metres long, and a set of 18 forms a fuel bundle about 8 cm diameter. Two bundles are joined together and capped at either end by a top and bottom nozzle, to form a fuel assembly with an overall length of about 10 metres, weighing 185 kilograms.

How is uranium made in a nuclear reactor?

The uranium is processed into small ceramic pellets and stacked together into sealed metal tubes called fuel rods. Typically more than 200 of these rods are bundled together to form a fuel assembly. A reactor core is typically made up of a couple hundred assemblies, depending on power level.

How is nuclear fuel loaded in a nuclear reactor?

The fuel bundles are spaced apart from one another to prevent inadvertent criticality (the state of self-sustaining fission) and the water contains boron. Boron absorbs enough neutrons to prevent the chain reaction from starting. The fuel is then kept underwater throughout the entire loading sequence to the reactor core.

How does a nuclear power plant work?

These reactors pump water into the reactor core under high pressure to prevent the water from boiling. The water in the core is heated by nuclear fission and then pumped into tubes inside a heat exchanger. Those tubes heat a separate water source to create steam. The steam then turns an electric generator to produce electricity.

How many fuel rods are in a nuclear reactor?

The pellets are stacked and sealed into long metal tubes that are about 1 centimeter in diameter to form fuel rods. The fuel rods are then bundled together to make up a fuel assembly. Depending on the reactor type, each fuel assembly has about 179 to 264 fuel rods. A typical reactor core holds 121 to 193 fuel assemblies.