Fuel cycle

In the nuclear fuel cycle, lots of logistics and transport has to be taken into account.

A brief list:

Natural uranium ore comes from several mines scattered across different continents: Oceania, America, Africa and Europe.

The natural uranium is converted into UF6 and then transported to enrichment factories including the U.S., France, Russia, etc. There the UF6 is enriched to a higher percentage of the isotope U-235 (min. 3%)

After this enrichment fuel will be made for nuclear power plants which produce electricity. This is converted into UF6 uraniumoxide (UO2). This uraniumoxide is compressed under high temperature into granules (pellets) which are processed into metal casings (fuel rods). These fuel rods are in turn grouped into fuel elements.

These fuel elements are transported to nuclear power plants around the world, where they are used for the fission process and electricity production.

The spent fuel rods are first stored in a water basin “spent fuel pool” for several years before being transported to either a permanent repository or to a recycling plant for processing into MOX fuel elements which can be re-used into the reactor.

Transport of enriched UF6 in the port of Antwerp

Loading of fuel elements for EDF