Nuclear fuel: The foundation of nuclear power

摘要

Commercial nuclear power plant fuel is amazing stuff. Light water reactor fuel assemblies operate in an unforgiving environment-high pressure, high temperature, high neutron flux, steep temperature gradients, challenging chemistry, and hydraulic loads and flow anomalies, among other things. They do it for 18 or 24 months at a time, and by the end of their useful life, most of the original uranium-235 has been used up through violent (on a microscopic scale) fissions, releasing emissions-free energy to power homes, businesses, and factories.