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There are two types of Nuclear Power Plants in the United States. Type one: The Pressurized Water Reactor

 The Pressurized Water Reactor keeps the water under pressure, where it only heats the water instead of boiling it. Water from the reactor and water from the steam generator, turned into steam, never mix. With this Reactor most of the radioactivity stays in the reactor area.

Type two: The Boiling Water Reactor



The Boiling Water Reactors the water boils. Both reactors make water into steam and recycle it using the condenser. Radioactivity is dangerous we have many safety systems to protect workers, the community and the environment. The safety systems include shutting the reactor down quickly and stopping the fission process. There are also systems to cool the reactor and carrying the heat away from it, and barriers to contain radioactivity and prevent it from escaping into the environment.

The Nuclear Fuel Cycle: In the Nuclear Fuel Cycle there are "front end" steps to prepare the uranium for use as fuel and "back end" steps the help to safely manage, prepare and dispose of the highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel.



There are several steps to prepare the fuel for use in a Nuclear Reactor. Exploration: A deposit of uranium is evaluated and sampled to determine the amounts of uranium materials that are extractable at specified costs from the deposit. Uranium reserves are the amounts of ore that are estimated to be recoverable at stated costs.

Mining: Uranium ore can be extracted through conventional mining in open pit and underground methods. In the United States there are situ leach mining methods. Uranium is leached from the in-place ore through an array of regularly spaced wells and is then recovered from the leach solution at a surface plant. Uranium ores in the United States Typically range from about 0.05 -0.3 percent uranium oxide (U308). Uranium developed in other countries are of higher grade and are larger than deposits mined in the US.

Milling: Mined uranium ores normally are processed by grinding the ore materials to a uniform particle size and then treating the ore to extract the uranium by chemical leaching. The milling process commonly yields dry powder-form material consisting of natural uranium, "yellowcake," which is sold on the uranium market as U308.

Uranium Conversion: Milled uranium oxide must be converted to uranium hexafluoride that is a form required by most commercial uranium enrichment facilities currently in use.

Enrichment: The concentration of the fissionable isotope is less than the required to sustain a nuclear chain reaction in light water reactor cores. Natural uranium hexafluoride must be "enriched" in the fissionable isotope for it to be used as nuclear fuel.

Fabrication: For use as nuclear fuel, enriched uranium hexafluoride is converted into uranium dioxide powder which is processed into pellet form. The pellets are then fired in a high temperature sintering furnace to create hard ceramic pellets of enriced uranium. The cylindrical pellets the undergo a grinding process to achieve a uniform pellet size.

Now the "back end" steps:

Uranium Storage: After the operating cycle, the reactor is shut down for refueling. The fuel discharged at the time is stored either at the reactor site or in the common facility away from reactor sites. If the on-site pool storage capacity is exceeded, it may be desirable to store aged fuel in modular dry storage facilities known as Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations at the reactor site or at a facility away from the site. The spent fuel rods are usually stored in water, which provides both cooling and shielding.

Reprocessing: Spent fuel discharged from light-water reactors contains appreciable quantities of fissile, fertile, and other radioactive materials. These fissile and fertile materials can be chemically seperated and recovered from the spent fuel. The recovered uranium and plutonium can, if economic and institutional conditions permit, be recycled for use as nuclear fuel. Currently, plants in Europe are reprocessing spent fuel from utilities in Europe and Japan.

Waste Disposal: A current concern in the nuclear power field is the safe disposal and isolation of either spent fuel from reactors or if the reprocessing option is used, wastes from reprocessing plants. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as amended, the Department of Energy has responsibility for the development of the waste disposal system for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste.

Nuclear Power Plants in Other Countries:  Nuclear power (% of total primary energy supply   IEA (International Energy Agency) 2007
 *  **France** ||  **42.6**  ||
 *  **Sweden** ||  **36.2**  ||
 *  **Lithuania** ||  **31.9**  ||
 *  **Armenia** ||  **27.7**  ||
 *  **Slovakia** ||  **24.8**  ||
 *  **Bulgaria** ||  **24.3**  ||
 *  **Switzerland** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **22.5**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Belgium** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **21.9**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Slovenia** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **21**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Korea (Republic of)** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **17.9**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Finland** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **17.3**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Ukraine** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **16.1**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Japan** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **15**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Czech Republic** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **14.3**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Hungary** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **13**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Germany** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **12.3**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Spain** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **10.3**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **United Kingdom** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **9.1**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **United States** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **9**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Canada** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **8.8**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Russian Federation** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **6.1**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Romania** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **3.8**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Argentina** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **2.8**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **South Africa** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **2.3**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Mexico** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **1.6**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Netherlands** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **1.3**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Brazil** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **1.2**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **China** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **0.8**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **India** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **0.8**  ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **Pakistan** || <span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 128)"> **0.8**  ||

for more information go to http://www.solcomhouse.com/nuclear.htm Credit: U.S. Department of Energy, international Atomic Energy Agency, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Schience DivisionLawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Penn State Radiation Science and Engineering Center, American Nuclear Society, European Commission, Solcomhouse.