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Uranium 101

May 03 2012

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What are these pictures in common?

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Uranium - some fun facts

Uranium is the HEAVIEST of the 92 NATURALLY occurringelements.

Uranium is classifies as a metal.

Uranium is one of the more common elements in the Earth's crust -it is more common than tin, about 40 times more common thansilver and 500 times more common than gold.

The rocks that contain a lot of uranium are called uranium ore, or pitchblende. (it is also the ore that uranium is discovered)

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Uranium The fuel used by Nuclear Power Plants

Nuclear Energy is the energy that comes from the

nucleus(core) of an atom.There are two process that can release the nuclear energy from an atom. Nuclear fusion

Energy is released when the nuclei of atomsare combined or fused together. This ishow the sun produces energy.

Nuclear fission

Energy is release when the nuclei of atoms

are split apart. This is the only methodcurrently used by nuclear plants togenerate electricity.

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Brief History of Nuclear Energy

Until early 1930s, the scientist discovered that the nucleus of anatom is made up of protons and neutrons.

In 1938, two German scientists split the nucleus of the atom apartby bombarding it with a neutron fission process.

Soon after, a Hungarian scientist discovered the chain reaction andits ability to produce enormous amounts of energy.

During World War II, nuclear fission was first used to make a bomb.

After the war, nuclear fission was developed for generatingelectricity.

The first nuclear power plant came online in Shippingport, PA in1957.

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Mining and Milling

The first step is mining the uranium ore. Workers mine the oremuch like miner mine coal in underground mines or surfacemines.

After it has been mined, uranium ore is crushed. The crushed ore isusually mixed with an acid, which dissolves the uranium but notthe rest of the crushed rocks. The acid s olution is drained off thedried, leaving a yellow powder called yello wcake, consisting most

of uranium.

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Conversion and Enrichment

The next step in the cycle is the conversion of the yellowcake intogas called uranium hexafluoride , or UF6. The uranium hexafluorideis then shipped to a gaseous diffu sion plant to enrichment.

The enrichment is theprocess to increase theconcentration of uranium-235 from one to five percet.

Because uriaium-235 hasthree fewer neutrons and isone percent lighter thanuranium-238, it movesthrough the holes moreeasily than uranium-238

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Fuel Fabrication

The enriched uranium is taken t o a fuel fabrication plant whereit is prepared for the nuclear react or. Here, the uranium ismakd into a solid ceramic material and formed into smallbarrel-shaped pellets.

Although it is about the size of f iguretip, yet each one canproduces as much energy as 150 gallons of oil.

The pellets are sealed in 12-ft metal tubes Called fuel rod.Finally the fuel rod are bundled into group called fuelassemblies.

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Nuclear Reactor (What happens in Comanche Peak)

- Fission happens in anuclear reactor

- Movable control rodsare put between fuelassemblies to absorbthe neutrons and slowdown the nuclear reaction.

- The heat is used to boilwater into steam that

turns a turbinegenerator to produceelectricity.

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Used Fuel Storage and ReprocessingThe fuel that is taken out of the reactor is called used fuel. Theused fuel contains both radioactive waste products and unusedfuel.

The used fuel is usually stored near the reactor in a deep pool of water called the used fuel pool. The used fuel cools and loses mostof its radioactivity through radioactive decay.

About 1/3 of the fuel remains unused when rod must be replaced.

However, no reprocess is done in American nuclear power plants.

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Nuclear Energy Use

Nuclear energy is an important of electricity third after coal andnatural gas providing 20.9 percent of electricity in US today.There are 104 nuclear reactors in operation at 65 power plants in 31states.

Worldwide, nuclear energy is a growing source of electrical power.It now provides about 14 percent of the worlds electricity.

France generates 75 percent of its electricity with nuclear power.

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Thank you!Question?