7. Glossary

Blanket

In a fast-neutron reactor, a zone of fertile material placed around the periphery of the core, capable of increasing the overgeneration ratio by recovering neutrons escaping from the core. This is known as a fertile blanket. When these blankets are loaded with minor actinides (respectively americium) for transmutation of these nuclides (see transmutation below), they are referred to as minor actinide-loaded blankets (CCAM) or americium-loaded blankets (CCAm).

Fuel cycle

All industrial operations relating to nuclear fuel: ore extraction and processing, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, irradiation in reactors, spent fuel processing, fissile material recycling and radioactive waste management. The word cycle is often associated with the names of the main heavy nuclei used in fuel. For example, the uranium-plutonium...