The Centre on July 27 denied that it has considered to transport the Spent Nuclear Fuel, SNF, to Russia from the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant.
- In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office Dr. Jitendra Singh said the SNF is a valuable recyclable fuel that can be reprocessed to produce more fuel for the next stage of reactors.
- India follows a closed fuel cycle to fully utilize the SNF. In closed fuel cycles, the remaining uranium in spent fuel, along with different isotopes of plutonium will be removed so that it can be reused as fresh fuel, but of course the extracted plutonium also carries proliferation threats. Proliferation is by far the most important concern when reprocessing.
- As per the US Energy, used fuel refers to the uranium fuel that has been used in a commercial reactor.
- The fuel is made up of metal fuel rods that contain small ceramic pellets of enriched uranium oxide.
- The fuel rods are combined into tall assemblies that are then placed into the reactor.
- It’s a solid when it goes into the reactor and a solid when it comes out.
- Used nuclear fuel can be recycled to make new fuel and byproducts. More than 90% of its potential energy still remains in the fuel, even after five years of operation in a reactor.
