The nuclear fuel cycle
A system of nuclear installations and activities interconnected
by streams of nuclear material. The characteristics of the fuel
cycle may vary widely from State to State, from a single reactor
supplied from abroad with fuel, to a fully developed system. Such a
system may consist of:
- uranium mines and concentration (ore processing) plants
- thorium concentration plants
- conversion plants
- enrichment (isotope separation) plants
- fuel fabrication plants
- reactors
- spent fuel reprocessing plants
- associated storage installations
The fuel cycle can be 'closed' in various ways, for example by
the recycling of enriched uranium and plutonium through thermal
reactors (thermal recycle), by the reenrichment of the uranium
recovered as a result of spent fuel reprocessing or by the use of
plutonium in a fast breeder reactor.
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