4 ms·

it's probably 250 tons / year for a 1 gigawatt plant

• Kadin 17y ago
  That might make sense if they're talking about the mass of the entire fuel rod assemblies (which all become high-level waste, since we don't reprocess in the U.S., instead treating reactors as furnaces that simply "burn" Uranium). However, it seems suspiciously large if they're actually talking about the amount of U-235 that's fissioned off.
• jedc 17y ago
  Probably not... re-fueling is a very time-intensive process. (The reactors I worked on were designed to be re-fueled every 25-30 years.) 250 tons for a 1 gigawatt constant output seems more likely to me.
  • sketerpot 17y ago
    I can clarify this. It's 250 tonnes of raw uranium, from which we get 35 tonnes of 3% enriched uranium, which give one gigawatt-year of electricity in a typical light water reactor.