French state-controlled utility EDF has announced that Flamanville Unit 3 (1,630 MWe EPR) is technically ready to begin its commis...
Tokyo Electric Power Co. Holdings Inc. (TEPCO) said Thursday it has submitted a plan to the nuclear regulator to begin loading fue...
Kazakhstan, the world’s largest uranium miner, is conducting “active work” to boost exports of the metal to US energy compan...
Uranium 101 - The Nuclear Fuel Cycle
The nuclear fuel cycle for the light water reactor (LWR), the most prevalent in use today, is illustrated in the figure below. The cycle consists of a “front end” that comprises the steps necessary to prepare nuclear fuel for reactor operation and a “back end” that comprises the steps necessary to manage the spent nuclear fuel, which is highly radioactive. It is possible, as shown, to extract the unused uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel through chemical reprocessing and to recycle the recovered uranium and plutonium as nuclear fuel.