An additional feature of metal fuel use in sodium is that the fuel does not chemically react with the coolant compared to
oxide fuel pellets which dissolve in high temperature sodium.
Not exact matches
The 3.7 - meter - long nuclear
fuel used at Fukushima is composed of uranium
oxide pellets encased in a zirconium cladding.
Rather than the
pellets of uranium
oxide used in other fast reactors and conventional reactors as
fuel, GE would fabricate metal alloy
fuels, with the plutonium or uranium mixed with zirconium metal.
• Ceramic process in which uranium
oxide powder is used to manufacture
pellets; these
pellets are inserted into zirconium alloy tubes which, once they are loaded, pressurized and sealed, are called
fuel rods.
A: The way the
fuel cycle is done now is: you mine uranium; you purify the metal; you convert it to
oxide; you put it in a reactor in the form of
pellets; it stays in there for about three years; you take it out, and you try to find someplace to put it.
The used
fuel pellets from current reactors (after processing to convert the uranium
oxide to uranium tetrafluoride) could just be dumped in the molten salt.