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- Uranium ore (usually black oxide) is mined.
- Uranium ore is shipped to Mill.
- Mill separates Uranium from ore and converts black oxide to yellow oxide (yellowcake).
- Yellowcake is shipped to Enrichment plant.
- Preprocessing plant converts yellowcake to Uranium Hexafluoride (the only Uranium compound that is a gas near room temperature, but also corrosive to almost every metal except nickel and explosive in contact with either water or oil!!!)
- Enrichment plant enriches the Uranium in the Uranium Hexafluoride gas from 0.72% Uranium-235 (natural level) to 3% Uranium-235 (power reactor fuel level)
- Postprocessing plant converts enriched Uranium Hexafluoride to enriched yellowcake.
- Yellowcake is shipped to fuel pellet Canning plant.
- Canning plant cans yellowcake in Zirconium alloy fuel pellet cans.
- Fuel pellets are shipped to fuel rod Assembly plant.
- Assembly plant inserts fuel pellets into steel fuel rod tubes.
- Fuel rods are shipped to Reactor.
- Fuel rods are inserted in Reactor as needed.
This is the basic outline from mine to a water moderated & cooled reactor. There are many additional minor steps along the way. For other reactor designs (e.g. metal cooled fast breeder reactor, gas cooled high temperature graphite moderated pebble bed reactor, liquid metal fueled reactor) several of the basic steps themselves will have to change.
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Which kind of scientists create atomic bombs?
Physicists and nuclear scientists create atomic bombs.
How is electricity generated by nuclear fuels?
The nuclear reaction creates heat. The heat is used to create steam and run a steam generator.
How nuclear fuels can be use to generate electricity?
Nuclear fissions in nuclear fuels generate heat and electricity.
What are the advances of burning fossil fuels over nuclear fuels?
Nuclear fuels are extremely dangerous and the station could explode.
What problems harnessed nuclear energy from fossil fuels?
Nuclear energy does not come from fossil fuels
Why would you want a scientist working on a nuclear power plant?
Governments want scientists to work on a nuclear power plant to lessen the dependence of fossil fuels. The product of nuclear power plants are atomic energy, a clean energy alternative.
Which fuels does not emit water vapor?
For example, nuclear fuels.
What chemical reaction fuels the sun?
Fusion is the type of nuclear reaction that fuels your solar system.
If scientists can utilize nuclear fission to create energy such as in nuclear electric power plants why can't they use nuclear fusion?
Because nothing to safely hold the process in has been developed yet.
What are the differences between fossil fuels and nuclear fuels?
fossil fuel is made by the nature and nuclear fuel is not made by the nature
What is true about nuclear power?
extracting energy from nuclear fuels is more expensive than extracting energy from fossil fuels
What are the main reasons why nuclear fusion have not been used in nuclear reactors?
Well, scientists have been researching fusion reactors for over 50 years, but nuclear fusion is much more difficult to achieve than nuclear fission, which is what current nuclear power technology is based on. There are many reasons for this, but while there have been tests and advancements in the field, scientists have yet to a) create a sustainable and stable nuclear fusion reaction and b) create a reaction that has a greater output than input.
