{"id":18518,"date":"2018-09-01T16:39:29","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T16:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/?page_id=18518"},"modified":"2023-02-06T15:00:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-06T15:00:54","slug":"conversion-factor-breeding-ratio","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sitepourvtc.com\/nuclear-power-plant\/nuclear-fuel\/conversion-factor-breeding-ratio\/","title":{"rendered":"Conversion Factor – Breeding Ratio"},"content":{"rendered":"
Fuel breeding <\/strong>or fuel conversion<\/strong> plays a significant role in the fuel cycle of all commercial power reactors. During fuel burnup, the fertile materials (conversion of 238<\/sup><\/strong>U<\/strong> to fissile 239<\/sup><\/strong>Pu<\/strong><\/a> known as fuel breeding<\/strong>) partially replace fissile 235<\/sup><\/strong>U<\/strong>, thus permitting the power reactor to operate longer before the amount of fissile material decreases to the point where reactor criticality is no longer manageable.<\/p>\n It must be added natural uranium<\/strong> primarily consists of isotope 238<\/sup>U<\/a> (99.28%). All commercial light water reactors contain both fissile<\/a> and fertile materials<\/a>. For example, most PWRs <\/a>use low enriched uranium fuel with enrichment of 235<\/sup><\/strong>U<\/strong><\/a> up to 5%. Therefore more than 95% of the content of fresh fuel is fertile isotope 238<\/sup><\/strong>U<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n There is potential to increase the recoverable energy content from the world’s uranium and thorium resources by almost two orders of magnitude by converting the fertile isotopes<\/a> uranium-238 and thorium-232 into fissile isotopes<\/a>.<\/p>\n