Article | REF: BN3500 V2

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle - General Introduction

Author: Jean-Marie GRAS

Publication date: January 10, 2016

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


Français

1. Fuel cycle

The fuel cycle covers all industrial operations leading from natural uranium ore (U nat ) to nuclear fuel and, after electricity production, spent fuel management operations through to final waste storage. The cycle industry can be broken down into three stages:

  • the upstream part of the cycle, which deals with unirradiated uranium (natural and enriched);

  • the core cycle, in which the fuel is used in a reactor for four to five years to generate electricity;

  • the downstream part of the cycle, which concerns the material irradiated after passing through the reactor (figure 1 ).

You do not have access to this resource.

Exclusive to subscribers. 97% yet to be discovered!

You do not have access to this resource.
Click here to request your free trial access!

Already subscribed? Log in!


The Ultimate Scientific and Technical Reference

A Comprehensive Knowledge Base, with over 1,200 authors and 100 scientific advisors
+ More than 10,000 articles and 1,000 how-to sheets, over 800 new or updated articles every year
From design to prototyping, right through to industrialization, the reference for securing the development of your industrial projects

This article is included in

Nuclear engineering

This offer includes:

Knowledge Base

Updated and enriched with articles validated by our scientific committees

Services

A set of exclusive tools to complement the resources

Practical Path

Operational and didactic, to guarantee the acquisition of transversal skills

Doc & Quiz

Interactive articles with quizzes, for constructive reading

Subscribe now!

Ongoing reading
Fuel cycle