Hobbies And Interests

How to Change Uranium Into Fuel for Nuclear Energy

Before uranium can power the many nuclear power plants that provide electricity to homes and businesses around the world, it must undergo a number of steps in the transformation process after uranium ores are mined. Different designs of reactors require different processes to enrich and fabricate the uranium.

Instructions

    • 1

      Convert the uranium from its natural form, U3O8 which is uranium oxide or yellow cake uranium, to uranium hexafluoride, UF6.

    • 2

      Heat the uranium hexafluoride to convert it into a gas.

    • 3

      Run the uranium hexafluoride through the gaseous diffusion plant or the system of centrifuges until it is enriched to 3 to 5 percent U235. In a gaseous diffusion plant, the uranium hexafluoride is sent through a special membrane that allows slightly more U235 through than the heavier U238. Centrifuges spin the gas to separate the slightly heavier U238 atoms. Both processes take many, many iterations to increase the concentration of U235 by even a little.

    • 4

      Send the enriched UF6 to a fuel fabrication facility and safely store the depleted uranium. Depleted uranium is the excess uranium from the enrichment process and has less than the natural concentration of .7 percent U235.

    • 5

      Fabricate the enriched uranium into zirconium clad fuel rods. In most power plants, uranium in the fuel rods is in the form of ceramic UO2.


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