How does the uranium fuel cycle produce depleted uranium?
The uranium nuclear fuel cycle consists of several processes involving uranium in different chemical and physical forms. Natural uranium contains 0.7 percent of the uranium-235 isotope. At uranium enrichment facilities, the gaseous diffusion process uses the the flow of gas through permeable membranes to produce uranium that is enriched to a higher concentration of U-235. The enrichment process also produces uranium depleted in U-235. Depleted uranium has about 0.3 percent U-235. This depleted uranium, combined with the plutonium dioxide (PuO2) from retired U.S. nuclear devices and other surplus plutonium, forms MOX fuel.
