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7th March 2012

1. Nuclear fuel comes in two types - fissile materials that readily undergo nuclear fission like uranium, and fissionable materials like thorium that can be converted to fissile. 2. Plutonium is a man-made nuclear fuel that produces high energy, can undergo fission with both fast and slow neutrons, and releases less of the poisonous Xenon. 3. Spent nuclear fuel is irradiated fuel that has been permanently removed from a reactor after irradiation and not undergone reprocessing to separate its components.

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36 views2 pages

7th March 2012

1. Nuclear fuel comes in two types - fissile materials that readily undergo nuclear fission like uranium, and fissionable materials like thorium that can be converted to fissile. 2. Plutonium is a man-made nuclear fuel that produces high energy, can undergo fission with both fast and slow neutrons, and releases less of the poisonous Xenon. 3. Spent nuclear fuel is irradiated fuel that has been permanently removed from a reactor after irradiation and not undergone reprocessing to separate its components.

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Senthil Kumar
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Civil Service Dreamers Its all about Nuclear fuel: 1.

Nuclear fuel is a material used to generate nuclear energy either by "fission" or "fusion". These are of two types: * Fissile * Fissionable material 2. Fissile material is one which readily undergoes nuclear fission and produces nuclear energy e.g. natural uranium, enriched, uranium, thorium derived uranium,whereas fissionable material is one which doesn't readily undergo nuclear reaction but is capable of conversion into fissile material as thorium. 3. Plutonium is a manmade material having properties as high nuclear energy per unit mass, which can undergo nuclear fission in fast and slow neutrons both. It has the highest breeding ratio and releases less Xenon which is poisonous. 4. Natural uranium contains 0.7 % uranium-235, 99.3 % uranium-238, and a trace of uranium234 by weight and can be used to fuel both low and high-power reactors. 5. Enriched uranium is a kind of uranium in which the per cent composition of U-235 has been increased through the process of isotope separation. In this nuclear fission occurs when bombarded by a slow moving neutron. 6. U-233 is thorium derived uranium that does not occur in nature. It is a good nuclear fuel and undergoes nuclear fission when bombarded by fast moving neutrons. 7. A Nuclear reactor coolant is a coolant used to remove heat from the nuclear reactor core and transfer it to electrical generators and the environment. 8. Nuclear fission occurs best with neutrons that move at relatively modest speeds but the neutrons released from fission reactions move at about 1/15 the speed of light. Thus moderators are used to slow down the speed of the neutrons. 9. Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is an irradiated fuel containing uranium, plutonium, or thorium. It ispermanently withdrawn from a nuclear reactor following irradiation, the constituent elements of which have not been separated by reprocessing. 10. Fuel for nuclear power stations comes from concentrated uranium which is made into fuel rods. The average life of a nuclear fuel rod is four years. Reprocessing is the chemical operation which separates the useful fuel for recycling from the waste.

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