Source: Canadian Nuclear Association https://cna.ca/reactors-and-smrs/how-a-nuclear-reactorworks/
Canadian nuclear power reactors are CANDU reactors – heavy water reactors developed by Canadian scientists and engineers. CANDU stands for Canada deuterium uranium, because it uses deuterium oxide (heavy water) as a moderator and coolant and uses natural (not enriched) uranium as a fuel. There are 19 in operation in Canada and another 11 elsewhere in the world. India also has 16 nuclear reactors that are based on the CANDU model.
I have included this schematic because it shows other important elements of a nuclear power plant. When used fuel rods are first taken from a reactor, they are both thermally and radioactively hot and must be cooled down. They are placed in a special cooling pool close to the reactor, shown as “used fuel management.”
About a decade ago, my husband Dr David Jones was invited as a guest speaker on uranium mining at a conference in Sweden. We took the opportunity to visit every nuclear facility we could and included all stages of nuclear waste management. I talked them into giving me a copy of the video below which shows some of the aspects of waste handling in Sweden. It is worth watching.
Click on the video to start it
My Blog has become My Nuclear Journey 