Sentences with phrase «reactor fuel»
The phrase "reactor fuel" refers to a substance that is used as a source of energy in a nuclear reactor. It is a material that undergoes a process called nuclear fission, which releases a large amount of heat that is converted into electricity. Full definition
In early studies, scientists relied on calculations or other indirect means, such as electron spectrum measurements made on reactor fuels, to estimate these numbers.
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Used reactor fuel remains extremely hot for hundreds of years and radioactive for thousands of years.
The Japanese government's Science and Technology Agency wants Japanese and Russian scientists to collaborate on the development of a new generation of reactors fuelled by plutonium.
Plans are afoot to reuse spent reactor fuel in the U.S..
The team says that, for the first time, the fallout of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor fuel debris into the surrounding environment has been «explicitly revealed» by the study.
Reprocessing and the use of plutonium as reactor fuel are also far more expensive than using uranium fuel and disposing of the spent fuel directly.
The use of «diluted» HEU for reactor fuels during the past decade is reflected in Table 2.
«We've been manufacturing boiling water reactor fuel at our Wilmington, North Carolina facility for nearly 50 years and we look forward to the possibility of making SMR - 160 fuel here too.»
Light water - cooled graphite - moderated reactors Fuelled by low - enriched uranium oxide, these reactors use graphite as a moderator and water to cool the core.
The Megatons to Megawatts program has secured 269 metric tons of highly enriched uranium and turned it into reactor fuel.
A fundamental assumption of the report is that current supplies of uranium are more than adequate to meet the needs of an expanding nuclear power sector, and therefore the United States should not accelerate development of reactor fuel reprocessing until extensive additional research has been done to identify the best fuel cycle technologies and strategies.
Three dry transfer systems for enhanced loading / unloading of research reactor fuel.
Some types of uranium reactor fuel could in theory be useful in weapons, while plutonium - also theoretically useful for weaponry - is created during operation.
Japan's nuclear plant crisis with the radioactivity contamination from spent fuel pools is likely to put an overdue spotlight on stalemated U.S. policies for managing reactor fuel, authors of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology report on the nuclear fuel cycle said yesterday.
With 436 reactors worldwide consuming 65,000 metric tons (one metric ton equals 1.1 U.S. tons) of enriched uranium per year, demand for this nuclear reactor fuel outstrips available supply, which has caused uranium prices to jump from a low of $ 10 per pound a few years ago to more than $ 130 per pound in 2007 and still more than $ 50 per pound today.
HI - STAR 60's loaded weight is approximately 60 tons which makes it the only cask for light water reactor fuel shippable by truck in Holtec's fleet at this time.
Also, recycling nuclear fuel (as is often but not always called for in fast reactor fuel cycles) brings up proliferation concerns that inspired the Jimmy Carter administration to cancel a large US effort to develop a fast - reactor system.
Highly enriched uranium is used in civilian reactor fuel in more than one hundred locations.
«We believe that our experience with boiling water reactor fuel lends itself quite well to the design features of the SMR - 160,» said Amir Vexler, CEO of GNF.
Through a multi-step process in Russia, the bomb - grade uranium material was converted into a different chemical form and then diluted into low enriched uranium suitable for use in fabricating commercial nuclear power reactor fuel.
MIT physics professor Ernest Moniz, director of the MIT Energy Initiative and co-chairman of the spent fuel study, said that until now, U.S. policy on the disposition of spent reactor fuel has been an «afterthought.»
France and Japan, on the other hand, routinely extract and reprocess plutonium for reuse as reactor fuel, but the dual - use potential of this process has led Holdren and his coauthors to recommend a «once - through fuel cycle» in which the spent fuel is not reprocessed, but instead goes directly into a storage repository.
Research reactor fuel, transuranic waste and sterilization capsules such as the Cesium Chloride capsules stored at the Hanford site.
Reprocessing separates nuclear waste into component materials, including plutonium, which can then be re-used as nuclear reactor fuel — but also as the raw material for a nuclear weapon.
Opportunities exist for the diversion of weapons - usable material at the front end of the fuel cycle, during which natural uranium is enriched to make reactor fuel.
The visit highlighted specific opportunities for Canada - India civil nuclear co-operation beyond the commercial exchange of reactor fuel
The visit highlighted specific opportunities for Canada - India civil nuclear co-operation beyond the commercial exchange of reactor fuelFirst, the visit highlighted specific opportunities for Canada - India civil nuclear co-operation beyond the commercial exchange of reactor fuel.
Spent reactor fuel may be either a waste or a resource, and it may take decades to find out which is true, the report authors conclude.
Reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi station runs on so - called mixed oxide (MOX) fuel, in which uranium is mixed with other fissile materials such as plutonium from spent reactor fuel or from decommissioned nuclear weapons.
It would be converted to a metallic fast - reactor fuel and then transferred to ALMR - type reactors.
The combination of fission products and transuranics is unsuited for weapons or even for thermal - reactor fuel.
Notably, that schedule is reasonably compatible with the planned timetable for shipment of spent thermal - reactor fuel to Yucca Mountain.
Coupling Reactor Types If advanced fast reactors come into use, they will at first burn spent thermal - reactor fuel that has been recycled using pyroprocessing.
It could be stashed away for future use as fast - reactor fuel.
Next they scrape the accumulated materials off the electrode, melt them down, cast them into an ingot and pass the ingot to a refabrication line for conversion into fast - reactor fuel.
Some people are advocating that the U.S. embark on an extensive program of PUREX processing of reactor fuel, making mixed oxides of uranium and plutonium for cycling back into thermal reactors.
It could instead be sent for recycling into fast - reactor fuel.
Found naturally only in trace quantities and seminal to alternate nuclear reactor fuels, protactinium is an extremely rare element that could reveal new trends among nearby actinide elements, including uranium.
An initial plan to entomb the wreck in concrete was abandoned, says Praaning, when Russian scientists found it would increase pressure on the reactor fuel to levels that could trigger an explosion.
As proposed, spent fuel would be «reprocessed» at new plants to remove plutonium and render the fissile material useable as a reactor fuel, according to the DoE, though critics charge this is both expensive and dangerous.
Natural circulation in the reactor alone is enough to remove all the heat generated by the radioactive decay of the elements in the reactor fuel.
To implement the PMDA, the United States has been building a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication facility to convert the plutonium into nuclear reactor fuel.
The plant will also host the Encapsulation Repository Facility where spent reactor fuel will be placed in iron and copper lined canisters that weigh 27 metric tonnes and will be embedded 500 meters into granite bedrock.
Russia has used «re-enriched» UET for the past five or so years to meet the reactor fuel demand of the domestic Russian nuclear industry.
Use of standard LWR fuel allows leveraging extensive experience and infrastructure for the storage, handling, and shipment of spent reactor fuel.