Nuclear Transport Facts

Ore deposits containing economically feasible amounts of uranium are extracted using in-situ solution mining, underground mining, open pit mining, or heap leaching.

Uranium ore is crushed, pulverised, and ground into a fine powder, then chemicals are added to separate the uranium from other materials and concentrate it in yellowcake (U3O8).

Yellowcake is converted to uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas at a conversion facility. This is called natural UF6 since the original concentrations of uranium isotopes are unchanged.

Individual uranium isotopes are separated to produce enriched UF6, which typically has 3% to 5% concentration of U-235 to operate more efficiently in nuclear reactors.

Nuclear fuel fabrication facilities chemically convert the UF6 into solid uranium dioxide (UO2) pellets. Those pellets are stacked and sealed into long metal tubes (fuel rods) which are bundled together in fuel assemblies.

Fuel assemblies are placed into nuclear reactors, where each assembly typically operates for three 12-24 month cycles, producing electricity by generating heat from the fission reaction.

Used fuel still contains about 96% of it’s original uranium, some plutonium produced in the reactor, and some waste, Reprocessing chemically separates the uranium and plutonium from the waste.

The uranium and plutonium recovered from reprocessing are made into mixed oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies, which are sent to nuclear reactors that use MOX fuel.

The waste left over from reprocessing, or the used fuel of reprocessing is not used but stored until it has cooled enough to be placed into dry storage containers, and eventually disposed of in a geologic repository.