What can be used as fuel in nuclear reactors?

uranium
A number of different materials can be used to fuel a reactor, but most commonly uranium is used. Uranium is abundant, and can be found in many places around the world, including in the oceans. Other fuels, such as plutonium and thorium, can also be used.

What can possibly replace uranium as fuel in nuclear reactor?

Thorium
Thorium. Thorium is an element that can be used as a fuel in the nuclear cycle. It is an alternative to uranium, and the technology to facilitate the use of thorium has been around since the 1960s.

Can you use plutonium as fuel?

Plutonium can also be used in fast neutron reactors, where a much higher proportion of Pu-239 fissions and in fact all the plutonium isotopes fission, and so function as a fuel. As with uranium, the energy potential of plutonium is more fully realized in a fast reactor.

Can plutonium-239 be used as fuel?

Plutonium-239 is the primary fissile isotope used for the production of nuclear weapons, although uranium-235 is also used for that purpose. Plutonium-239 is also one of the three main isotopes demonstrated usable as fuel in thermal spectrum nuclear reactors, along with uranium-235 and uranium-233.

Which atomic species Cannot be used as nuclear fuel?

Question 5: Which atomic species cannot be used as a nuclear fuel? Since 23892U 92 238 U isotope of uranium does not participate in nuclear chain reaction, it cannot be used as nuclear fuel.

Which is good nuclear fuel?

Uranium-238 is the most common isotope of uranium in nature which constitutes 99.28\% of natural uranium. As you can see that uranium-238 contributes in the operation of nuclear reactions and hence is a good nuclear fuel.

What are moderators in nuclear reactors?

Slow neutrons strike nuclei of uranium-235, causing the nuclei to fission, or split, and release fast neutrons. The fast neutrons are absorbed or slowed by the nuclei of a graphite moderator, which allows just enough slow neutrons to continue the fission chain reaction at a constant rate.

Is plutonium safer than uranium?

Plutonium-239, the isotope found in the spent MOX fuel, is much more radioactive than the depleted Uranium-238 in the fuel. Plutonium emits alpha radiation, a highly ionizing form of radiation, rather than beta or gamma radiation. When alpha-emitters get inside cells, on the other hand, they are extremely hazardous.