Basic chain-reacting material, including both fissile and fertile materials. Commonly used nuclear fuels are natural uranium, and low-enriched uranium; high-enriched uranium and plutonium are used in some reactors.
Pellets of concentrated uranium oxide or a comparable radioactive material that can provide energy in a nuclear reactor.
Material containing fissile nuclides which, when placed in a reactor, enables a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
fuel (such as uranium) that can be used in nuclear reactors as a source of electricity
Energy derived from atomic nuclear processes during fission or fusion.
Fissionable materials that have been enriched to such a composition that, when placed in a nuclear reactor, will support a self-sustaining fission chain reaction, producing heat in a controlled manner for process use.
Fissile material used in a reactor. Synonym: fuel.
the solid material which is used to fuel nuclear power plants.
Fissionable material of reasonable long life, used or usable in producing energy in a nuclear reactor.
Nuclear fuel is any material that can be consumed to derive nuclear energy, by analogy to chemical fuel that is burned to derive energy. By far the most common type of nuclear fuel is heavy fissile elements that can be made to undergo nuclear fission chain reactions in a nuclear fission reactor; nuclear fuel can refer to the material or to physical objects (for example fuel bundles composed of fuel rods) composed of the fuel material, perhaps mixed with structural, neutron moderating, or neutron reflecting materials. The most common fissile nuclear fuels are 235U and 239Pu, and the actions of mining, refining, purifying, using, and ultimately disposing of these elements together make up the nuclear fuel cycle, which is important for its relevance to nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons.