What radioactive isotope is used in most nuclear power plants?

Answer 1

Most nuclear fuel for nuclear reactors in power plants is enriched uranium, though there are some plants that use "regular" uranium, like the plants using heavy water. There are also plants that use plutonium.

Research and development is being done on nuclear plants using thorium as fuel.

Surf on over to the Wikipedia articles to mine more data. You'll find links to them below.

Answer 2

Most nuclear power plants use uranium-235 as their fuel, in a concentration of around 4% to 5% enrichment, in combination with uranium-238, at 96% to 95%.

A few nuclear power reactors can use plutonium or thorium as fuel.

Any element above lead and bismuth will radioactively decay but Uranium 235 (U235) is used almost exclusively for controlled nuclear fission. uranium 235 is refined and "enriched" from uranium 238 which is what about 99% of uranium found turns out to be.

In principle, any radioactive element could be used as fuel,

but almost all existing nuclear power plants get their energy from the fission of

Uranium, Plutonium, and Thorium.

Many other elements play supporting roles at nuclear power plants; see the related question "What elements are used at nuclear power plants?".

Answer 3

The most commonly used radioactive isotope in nuclear power plants is uranium-235. It is used as fuel in nuclear reactors to generate heat through nuclear fission reactions, which produces steam that drives turbines to generate electricity.

Answer 4

Most nuclear power plants run on enriched uranium. It is uranium that contains some U-238 (the most abundant natural isotope) and an artificially increased percentage of U-235.

Answer 5

It is used: 1. natural uranium (metal or oxide); 2. Uranium dioxide; 3. MOX fuel (Uranium Oxide + Plutonium Oxide); 4. Plutonium Oxide; and in future 5. Thorium fue

Answer 6

uranium

Answer 7

U-238