Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor. It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and, depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle, it will have different isotopic constituents than when it started.
Spent fuel pool at a nuclear power plant
Spent nuclear fuel stored underwater and uncapped at the Hanford site in Washington, US
Activity of U-233 for three fuel types. In the case of MOX, the U-233 increases for the first 650,000 years as it is produced by decay of Np-237 that was created in the reactor by absorption of neutrons by U-235.
Spent fuel pool at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on 27 November 2013
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. As of September 2023, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported there were 410 nuclear power reactors in operation in 32 countries around the world, and 57 nuclear power reactors under construction.
Angra Nuclear Power Plant in Brazil
Some nuclear reactors make use of cooling towers to condense the steam exiting the turbines. All steam released is never in contact with radioactivity.
Bruce Nuclear Generating Station (Canada), one of the largest operational nuclear power facility in the world.
Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Eurajoki, Finland. The site houses of one of the most powerful reactors known as EPR.
