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01 Introduction</p>
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This episode is the second in an 8 part series on nuclear reactor technology.&nbsp;</p>
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This episode will cover types of nuclear fuel, recycling of nuclear fuel, uranium and thorium resources, and medical isotopes.</p>
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03 Types of Nuclear Fuel</p>
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03 Natural Uranium</p>
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04 Enriched Uranium</p>
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05 Mixed Oxide Fuel, or MOX</p>
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06 Thorium Fuel</p>
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08 Plutonium in Uranium Cycle Reactors</p>
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09 Depleted Uranium</p>
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10 Oxide or Ceramic versus Metallic Fuel</p>
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12 Recycling Spent Fuel</p>
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13 Once Through Fuel Cycles</p>
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14 Reprocessing Spent Uranium Fuel into Mixed Oxide or MOX Fuel</p>
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16 Reprocessing and Thorium Fuel</p>
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17 Direct Reuse of Spent Light Water Fuel in Heavy Water Moderated Reactors</p>
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18 DUPIC - Direct Use of Used PWR Fuel in CANDU</p>
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20 RepU - Reprocessed Uranium Fuel in CANDU</p>
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21 Uranium and Thorium Resources</p>
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21 Uranium Mining</p>
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22 Uranium in Sea Water</p>
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23 Thorium</p>
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24 Medical Isotopes</p>
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25 Examples of Common Medical Isotopes</p>
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26 How Medical Isotopes are Made</p>
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27 Producing Isotopes in Research Reactors</p>
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29 Producing Isotopes in Power Reactors</p>
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31 Summary</p>
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The basis of nuclear fission is nuclear fuel.</p>
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There are three main types of nuclear fuel in commercial use today.</p>
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These are natural uranium, enriched uranium, and mixed oxide or MOX uranium-plutonium mixtures.</p>
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It is possible to use thorium in a sort of thorium-plutonium or thorium-uranium MOX fuel, but this not currently economically viable at this time when uranium is so cheap and abundant.&nbsp;</p>
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Spent fuel can be recycled and used in a reactor again.</p>
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Medical isotopes are an important byproduct of the nuclear industry, and a large share of the world's population has benefited from this at one time or another.</p>
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32 Conclusion</p>
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In the next episode I will describe the basic features and characteristics of reactors together with descriptions of the most widely used commercial reactor types.</p>
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This concludes the second episode of an 8 part series on nuclear reactor technology.&nbsp;</p>
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