ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces nuclear power technologies and nuclear fuel cycles with a detailed description of uranium markets and country nuclear programmes. The future of the nuclear power industry depends on an interrelated combination of technical, economic and political benefits, costs, risks and uncertainties. Thermal reactor technologies can be characterised along two dimensions: the choice of nuclear reaction moderator, to capture nuclear particles. Nuclear power plants can be characterised by whether plants use a direct or an indirect cycle to transfer energy from the nuclear reactor to the turbine generator. The chapter discusses the history of nuclear power in six regions: the United States; the United Kingdom, with the Commonwealth of Nations; France and Western Europe; the former Soviet Union, with Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Latin America; and East Asia. Mining for the production of nuclear weapons started in the 1940s. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
