Talk:Nuclear fuel

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Sorry DV8 2XL, I didn't bother to look at the history page until I had added several things to this article, so I didn't see that it has been merged with Nuclear fuel cycle in the past. It makes sense, since I actually stole a paragraph from that article to explain the common nuclear fuel types. As is, I think it is adequate to have this page focus on fuel forms as I've tried to do since I haven't yet found anything else this specific about fuel forms on wikipedia (unless I've just never looked in the right place). Hopefully I'll be able to find pictoral examples of each, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Lcolson 22:29, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

Contents 1 Reordering/formating 2 Nice page 3 Global Nuclear Energy Partnership 4 Fuels in pellet graphs? 5 Using PCBs as Energy 6 Article Restructuring 7 New photo

[edit] Reordering/formating

Nice work Cadmium, you added order to my chaotic additions. I didn't even think of adding MOX and UOX (some of the many improvements). Lcolson 01:52, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Nice page

I have forgotten what ever it is I said about this page - but it looks good now. I've made a few additions to it and some wikilinks, and I'm going to write a section on the fuels used in atomic battery applications shortly. --DV8 2XL 19:55, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

In February, 2006, a new U.S. initiative, the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership was announced - it would be an international effort to reprocess fuel in a manner making proliferation infeasible, while making nuclear power available to developing countries. Would someone like to blend GNEP into this article? Simesa 20:57, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Fuels in pellet graphs?

Should not fuel be component or substance there? Midgley 03:47, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Using PCBs as Energy

Is it possible to generate and capture energy in the process of cleaning up PCB waste? Can that 'energy' be stored and used to power businesses or homes?

PCB's are not nuclear fuel, but a chemical byproduct from various industrial practices, so this is not the correct place to post this... but I'll humor you.

If I remember my chemistry right, PCB's are poly-chlorinated biphenols. I think it is a benzene ring on them that causes the problem (not sure... its been close to a decade since I learned about them). You probably could burn them for energy, but if the burning process wasn't complete you would probably get some polutants going out the stack and poluting the air and poisening people, which is why no-one has probably tried doing this.Lcolson 20:50, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Article Restructuring

I don't know about the rest of you, but PIE isn't the first thing I think of when I hear the words "nuclear fuels". Also, I think spent fuel should be placed moved, as well as some other stuff. I've never done much editting on here before, so anyone feel free to give me some criticism or reverse anything I do.Ajnosek 00:30, 23 June 2006 (UTC).

I disagree with your edit to the section on chernobyl, the nature of the fuel can prevent a core damage accident from becoming a serious accident. The events at three mile island show that core damage does not always lead to a nasty accident with off site effects on the level 6 or 7 scale.Cadmium 20:45, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

I didn't mean to change the meaning of what I was editting, but I can see how I did make that more vague now. There was a misplaced modifier. But that doesn't matter now since I see you yanked that whole section. I was thinking about doing that myself, because I don't know how relavent it is to this page, but instead I just moved it to the bottom. Thanks for the help. Ajnosek 22:58, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

So I just did a bunch of work on the TRISO fuel part, but I forgot to sign in before I did. Is this a big deal? Ajnosek 19:11, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

I also reworked alot of the fuel behavior section, but I couldn't get the graphs to organize nicely. Does anyone know how to resize and move them around so they look better? I am also thinking about removing PIE from that subtitle (but keep it in the section of course) just because it's a small part of the section. Also, I believe (although I may be wrong) that the words "atomic battery" generally refer to RTGs as well, so I restructured that part more consistent with how they do on the atomic battery page. Ajnosek 22:32, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New photo

I do not see the utility of the new diagram in the article lead. Looking at what it was derived from, it looks like an attempt to make nuclear fuel appear in a bad light. The nuclear symbol has been added in several spots with a dull red tinge around it, and two mushroom clouds and shells were also added the original photo is here.

Now compare it to the new one.

The original image had none of these. Plus, I do not think that a specific diagram about a type of nuclear fuel cycle should be at the front of an article about nuclear fuel. I think the binding energy diuagram is much better as the lead diagram since it is much more general and fits with the article better. 69.129.195.170

I think that there should definitely be something like the diagrams at the right somewhere on this page (showing the full fuel cycle) but I agree that the new one is inadequate for a few reasons, among them: misspelling of "depleted", the inclusion of radiological symbols even for things which are weakly radioactive (i.e. DU). I'm less concerned with the shells and the clouds, though -- they are pretty standard symbols and it is fairly incontrovertible that the fuel cycle can be put to weapons purposes. I think the original one fails when it doesn't indicate that this has often been the result of certain ends of the fuel cycle. But I think the military/civilian uses should be differentiated, somehow. --Fastfission 04:23, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

I agree. A nuclear fuel diagram could compliment the article well, but the current one (the bottom picture) doesn't do it justice. The top one is much better, but could still use some work. Most of the spent fuel can be recycled, so that arrow should be larger and the waste smaller. Also, can't MOX fuel be reprocessed too? Maybe a simple arrow from "MOX fuel" to "power reactors" would be more appropriate than one going behind "power reactors". Also, is there liquid waste (other than low level waste)? Otherwise it is redundant. Ajnosek 05:03, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

This diagram is graphically beautiful but I think it is in some ways incorrect or at least misleading and therefore requires revising. The main problem is that although according to the title it describes the production and use of nuclear fuel, it nevertheless concentrates on military uses of nuclear technology. This should not be the case if the aim is to accurately describe fabrication and use of nuclear fuel.

Fact is that no nation is known to use nuclear power plant fuel in nuclear weapons production and therefore their inclusion, at least so prominently, is questionable if not outright biased. Interestingly nowadays the reduction of nuclear weapon stockpiles through the use of MOX fuel is by far more commonplace than the fabrication of new weapons materials. Nevertheless the arrow towards nuclear weapons is much larger and thicker than the one away from weapons stockpiles. This gives a completely biased picture of the matter since a theoretical, non-existent use of nuclear fuel is shown more prominently than actual, important uses.

Also the DU used in conventional munitions comes from military stockpiles and should not be included when describing the use of nuclear fuel. For some reasons the more relevant civilian uses of DU are not mentioned at all. One also wonders why, if miltary use of nuclear materials from non-power-plant reactors is mentioned, the beneficial use of similarly produced isotopes in medical purposes and fire alarms are not mentioned at all. These uses save thousands of lives every year and are thus very important uses of uranium derived materials.

Stamping a "radioactive" sign on everything also seems unnecessary, especially considering that DU, which has been given one, is less radioactive than natural uranium. Because of these reasons I think that Wikipedia should return to use the original graphics on this page. This is important for keeping the artcle unbiased and neutral. Tungsten 11:31, 1 March 2007 (UTC)