fuel rod

American  

noun

Energy.

1. nuclear fuel contained in a long thin-walled tube, an array of such tubes forming the core of a nuclear reactor.

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fuel rod British  

noun

1. a long tube, often made of a zirconium alloy and containing uranium-oxide pellets, that is stacked in bundles of about 200 to provide the fuel in certain types of nuclear reactor

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Example Sentences

Each fuel rod is packed with fingertip-sized pellets of processed uranium that generate heat through the splitting of billions of atoms each second.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 31, 2021

Under the decommissioning process, spent fuel rod assemblies are initially placed in large pools of water where the hot fuel is cooled for at least two years.

From Washington Times • Apr. 29, 2020

Just this week, Chubu Electric Power Co. said that it has been unable to remove a damaged fuel rod from a reactor for 17 years.

From BusinessWeek • Jul. 29, 2011

If one of the fuel rod assemblies melted, it would likely breach the concrete containment vessel and spew radioactivity to the ground, air and water at a much higher level than we've seen so far.

From Salon • Apr. 12, 2011

Fuel rods are rigged together in an assembly that allows neutrons to travel from one fuel rod to another.

From "Meltdown" by Deirdre Langeland