fuel rod

Noun

fuel rod (plural fuel rods)

1. A long zirconium tube, filled with pellets of uranium oxide, stacked in bundles inside a nuclear reactor as fuel.
   • Since it began operating in 1950, Sellafield has had different duties. First it manufactured plutonium for nuclear weapons. Then it generated electricity for the National Grid, until 2003. It also carried out years of fuel reprocessing: extracting uranium and plutonium from nuclear fuel rods after...December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian
   • Over the years, the railway has been the safest way to move hazardous chemicals, radioactive waste, fuel for Royal Navy nuclear submarines and imported fuel for reprocessing, as well as flasks containing fuel rods to and from British power stations.2023 December 27, Ben Jones, “Inside Sellafield... by rail”, in RAIL, number 999, page 21