Sometimes the metals of uranium or plutonium are used as fue

Sometimes the metals of uranium or plutonium are used as fuel rods for the reactor what do you think might be the advantages and what do you think would be the disadvantages of using the metal rather than the oxide, nitride or the carbide??

Solution

Nuclear power plants do not burn any fuel. Instead, they generate heat when nuclear fuel undergoes nuclear fission. Most nuclear fuels contain heavy fissile elements that are capable of nuclear fission, such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239. The uranium fuel consisting of solid ceramic pellets produce electricity through the process of nuclear fission.

In case of fission reactors, the fuel used is usually based on the metal oxide. The oxides are preferred rather than the metals themselves because the oxide melting point is much higher than that of the metal. Because of this it cannot burn, being already in the oxidized state. This advantage made oxides more preferable over metals.

Though metal fuels have the advantage of much higher heat conductivity than oxide fuels but the dis-advantage is they cannot survive equally high temperatures.