Fuel Supply

In 1789 the German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered uranium in pitchblende in Berlin. For a long time uranium was deemed to be the element with the highest atomic mass and as a result it was named after Uranus which in the 18th century was still considered to be the most remote planet. For decades the metal was only of interest to chemists. Then from the 19th century on it was also used for colouring glass and ceramics and gave the glasses and bowls their distinctive Anna (yellow-)green hue.

Nowadays uranium is processed into nuclear fuel and used for the commercial generation of electricity. The uranium required for this is mined throughout the world and thus also protects against dependencies - particularly dependence on gas imports. This is hugely important given the insecure political situation in many exporting countries. Uranium is mainly extracted in politically stable countries such as Canada and Australia and will continue be available for at least another 200 years.

The uranium ore extracted is crushed and ground at the mining location and transformed by means of a chemical treatment into yellowcake, a yellow powder which usually contains approximately 70 percent uranium in the form of U-308. Yellowcake is then converted into UF6 and delivered to Germany. Here it is further processed in two successive steps into fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants. The uranium enrichment plant of URENCO Deutschland (Germany) GmbH in Gronau takes care of enrichment of the natural uranium. The fuel assembly production plant of Advanced Nuclear Fuels GmbH in Lingen processes the enriched uranium into pellets and manufactures the fuel assemblies from them.

Uranium Enrichment in Gronau
URENCO Deutschland GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of URENCO Enrichment Company Limited which operates internationally and has its headquarters in the Westphalian town of Gronau. Uranium for electricity production in nuclear power plants has been enriched there since 1985. The U-238 isotope makes up about 99.3 percent of the uranium and the U-235 isotope makes up the remaining 0.7 percent. U-235 is relatively easily fissile by thermal neutrons and is therefore the basis of energy generation in nuclear power plants. U-235 is enriched on a large scale in the Gronau plant using the centrifuge process. This technology developed within the company is particularly efficient compared to other techniques. Thus the company makes a significant contribution to a low-CO2 life cycle of nuclear energy.

Production at the Gronau site runs at 100 percent capacity usage in two separation plants. UTA-1 has been delivering 1,800 tons of separative work per year (t SWU/a) since the end of 2005; the new separation plant UTA-2 will deliver a further 2,700 t SWU/a by 2012. The URENCO Group´s share in the world market is currently (2009) around 25 percent. Measured against the Group´s total delivery volume, the plant on the Gronau site contributes around 20 percent.

Fuel Assembly Manufacture in Lingen
Fuel assemblies for the generation of electricity from nuclear fission have been manufactured in Lingen in Emsland since 1979. Advanced Nuclear Fuels GmbH (ANF) produces uranium dioxide fuel assemblies for pressurised and boiling water reactors with an enrichment of up to 5 wt% U-235 in the fuel assembly fabrication plant.

As a wholly-owned subsidiary of AREVA NP GmbH, ANF cooperates in a manufacturing network with other fuel assembly fabrication plants in France, Belgium and the US. The maximum licensed annual capacity for the plant in Lingen is 650 tonnes of uranium. In the plant, uranium hexafluoride (UF6) is processed into fuel assemblies in four production steps (dry conversion - pellet fabrication - rod fabrication - fuel assembly construction). Up to 50 tonnes of ERU (enriched reprocessed uranium) pellets are processed each year. The plant is flexible in its design and is capable of fabricating fuel assemblies for all types of western light water reactors.

Since the start of operations in 1979, ANF has produced 27,867 fuel assemblies with around 4.8 million fuel rods for pressurised and boiling water reactors in Germany and other Western European countries. In total some 9,537 tonnes of uranium have been processed in the approximately 29 years of operation.

Would you like to learn more about nuclear fuel production in Germany? Further information may be found at: