Nuclear fuel cycle

The chain of steps that supplies a fission reactor with fuel and deals with what comes out. The front end is mining uranium, converting it to uranium hexafluoride gas, enriching it and fabricating it into fuel. The back end is storing spent fuel, then either reprocessing it or disposing of it. A once-through cycle, used by most countries, stores spent fuel for eventual disposal; a closed cycle reprocesses it to recover uranium and plutonium for new fuel. Each step needs its own specialised, licensed facility, so a new reactor design depends on every step being able to supply its particular fuel, not only on the reactor itself.

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concept:nuclear-fuel-cycle

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