General Information about the Nuclear Fuel Cycle

2 General Information about the Nuclear Fuel Cycle 

In nuclear power stations electrical current is produced from nuclear energy. Efficient operation requires provision of the nuclear power station with fuel elements and the disposal of spent materials. These operations are brought together in the nuclear fuel cycle, which embraces on the provision side the extraction and dressing of uranium ores to uranium concentrates, their conversion to uranium(VI) fluoride, enrichment of the uranium isotope from 0.7% in natural uranium to ca. 3%, the conversion of uranium(VI) fluoride into nuclear fuel and the production of fuel elements. 

Disposal comprises the reprocessing of spent fuel elements i.e. the separation and recycling of unused uranium and of the plutonium produced in the reactor and the treatment and secure permanent storage of the radioactive fission products. 

Since 1994 it has been legally permissible in the Federal Republic of Germany to store the fuel elements directly. 

It has not yet been decided in the Federal Republic of Germany which option is to be preferred long term. 

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