01 Introduction

This episode is the second in an 8 part series on nuclear reactor technology. 

This episode will cover types of nuclear fuel, recycling of nuclear fuel, uranium and thorium resources, and medical isotopes.

03 Types of Nuclear Fuel

03 Natural Uranium

04 Enriched Uranium

05 Mixed Oxide Fuel, or MOX

06 Thorium Fuel

08 Plutonium in Uranium Cycle Reactors

09 Depleted Uranium

10 Oxide or Ceramic versus Metallic Fuel

12 Recycling Spent Fuel

13 Once Through Fuel Cycles

14 Reprocessing Spent Uranium Fuel into Mixed Oxide or MOX Fuel

16 Reprocessing and Thorium Fuel

17 Direct Reuse of Spent Light Water Fuel in Heavy Water Moderated Reactors

18 DUPIC - Direct Use of Used PWR Fuel in CANDU

20 RepU - Reprocessed Uranium Fuel in CANDU

21 Uranium and Thorium Resources

21 Uranium Mining

22 Uranium in Sea Water

23 Thorium

24 Medical Isotopes

25 Examples of Common Medical Isotopes

26 How Medical Isotopes are Made

27 Producing Isotopes in Research Reactors

29 Producing Isotopes in Power Reactors

31 Summary

The basis of nuclear fission is nuclear fuel.

There are three main types of nuclear fuel in commercial use today.

These are natural uranium, enriched uranium, and mixed oxide or MOX uranium-plutonium mixtures.

It is possible to use thorium in a sort of thorium-plutonium or thorium-uranium MOX fuel, but this not currently economically viable at this time when uranium is so cheap and abundant. 

Spent fuel can be recycled and used in a reactor again.

Medical isotopes are an important byproduct of the nuclear industry, and a large share of the world's population has benefited from this at one time or another.

32 Conclusion

In the next episode I will describe the basic features and characteristics of reactors together with descriptions of the most widely used commercial reactor types.

This concludes the second episode of an 8 part series on nuclear reactor technology.