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- Nuclear fuels are obtained from inorganic minerals extracted by mining. Although they are at least partially consumed when used in nuclear reactors for the production of heat, they differ from fossil fuels in the way they release energy. Burning of fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas, is a chemical reaction. Nuclear fuels, such as uranium, are destroyed by a process of spontaneous disintegration, called fission, and prompted by natural radioactivity. If the process is left to occur naturally in uranium-bearing rock, the rate of change is imperceptibly small. In a man-made nuclear reactor the energy-releasing processes of disintegration, which in the natural state happen slowly over thousands of millions of years, are compressed into minutes. The release of energy is harnessed to generate steam which drives electricity generators.
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| Abstract from DBPedia | Nuclear fuel is material used in nuclear power stations to produce heat to power turbines. Heat is created when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission. Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile actinide elements that are capable of undergoing and sustaining nuclear fission. The three most relevant fissile isotopes are uranium-233, uranium-235 and plutonium-239. When the unstable nuclei of these atoms are hit by a slow-moving neutron, they frequently split, creating two daughter nuclei and two or three more neutrons. In that case, the neutrons released go on to split more nuclei. This creates a self-sustaining chain reaction that is controlled in a nuclear reactor, or uncontrolled in a nuclear weapon. Alternatively, if the nucleus absorbs the neutron without splitting, it creates a heavier nucleus with one additional neutron. The processes involved in mining, refining, purifying, using, and disposing of nuclear fuel are collectively known as the nuclear fuel cycle. Not all types of nuclear fuels create power from nuclear fission; plutonium-238 and some other elements are used to produce small amounts of nuclear power by radioactive decay in radioisotope thermoelectric generators and other types of atomic batteries. Nuclear fuel has the highest energy density of all practical fuel sources.核燃料（かくねんりょう、英: nuclear fuel）とは、核分裂連鎖反応を起こし、エネルギーを発生させるために相当期間原子炉に入れて使うものを言う。ウラン233 (233U)、ウラン235 (235U)、プルトニウム239 (239Pu) などを指す。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Nuclear_fuel) |
