How nuclear fuel is produced, from the mine to the reactor. VIDEOGRAPHIC
Category
đź—ž
NewsTranscript
00:00Nuclear reactors use uranium as a fuel, which is a mineral found in certain rocks.
00:13After extraction, uranium is dissolved in acid, then chemically treated to obtain a
00:18yellow powder called yellow cake.
00:21But only a fraction of this uranium, which contains the isotope 235, is able to produce
00:27a nuclear fission reaction.
00:30The fuel must therefore be enriched to increase the level of the isotope 235.
00:35To do this, the yellow cake must be converted into a gas, then using a centrifuge, separated
00:40into enriched and depleted uranium.
00:46The enriched uranium is converted into uranium oxide powder, then compressed into 7g pellets.
00:53They are stacked in 4m long metal tubes called fuel rods, and combined into fuel assemblies,
00:59which will be loaded into the nuclear reactors.
01:04After 3-4 years of use, the spent nuclear fuel is removed from the reactor.