I wrote: The efficiency of uranium pellets is only about 4% because of the >> deterioration of the zirconium cladding that encloses the uranium. >> > > That is true. So that means 4% of 29% of the pellet would be used up > (transmuted). >
Maybe that's wrong. This reference seems to indicate that nearly all 300 mg of the U-235 may be used up (fissioned). See: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Nuclear-Fuel-Cycle/Introduction/Nuclear-Fuel-Cycle-Overview/ Quote: "Considering just how much of the original uranium is actually used: 0.7% fissile U-235 is in natural U (Unat), on above 'typical' figures: 0.49% of Unat goes into fuel as the fissile part, 0.394% is actually fissioned, and in addition about half that much U-238 turned into Pu-239 is fissioned, giving about a 0.6% utilization of the original Unat." I don't know much about it. - Jed
