American power plants are using over 40 million pounds of uranium fuel each year. Much more uranium is likely to be available beyond our proven reserves. U-238 can also be processed into plutonium, which is also fissionable. Once mined, the uranium ore is sent to a processing plant to be concentrated into a useful fuel. There are 16 processing plants in the US, although eight are inactive.
Most uranium concentrate is made by leaching the uranium from the ore with acids.
When finished, the uranium ore is turned into U3O8, the fuel form of uranium, and formed into small pellets. The pellets are packed into 12-foot long rods, called fuel rods. The rods are bundled together into fuel assemblies, ready to be used in the core of a reactor. American utilities used 42.7 million pounds of U3O8 in 1998, but 83 percent of this was imported. The nuclear industry in the US often argues that nuclear power reduces imports of foreign oil, saving us money.