NUCLEAR FUEL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does nuclear fuel mean? 

• NUCLEAR FUEL (noun)
  The noun NUCLEAR FUEL has 1 sense:

1. fuel (such as uranium) that can be used in nuclear reactors as a source of electricity

  Familiarity information: NUCLEAR FUEL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NUCLEAR FUEL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fuel (such as uranium) that can be used in nuclear reactors as a source of electricity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Hypernyms ("nuclear fuel" is a kind of...):

fuel (a substance that can be consumed to produce energy)

 Context examples 

Brown dwarfs start their lives like stars, as collapsing balls of gas, but they lack the mass to burn nuclear fuel and radiate starlight.

(A cold, close neighbor of the Sun, NASA)

When they run out of nuclear fuel, there is no longer enough energy from radiation to hold the star's outer layers against its immense gravity.

(Elusive Middleweight Black Hole Found at Center of Giant Star Cluster, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Red giants are dying stars in the late stages of life that are exhausting the nuclear fuel that makes them shine.

(Hubble Detects Giant 'Cannonballs' Shooting from Star, NASA)

Supernovae like these — known as Type II — begin when the internal furnace of a star runs out of nuclear fuel, causing its core to collapse as gravity takes over.

(Kepler Catches Early Flash of an Exploding Star, NASA)

Previous work with Hubble, Spitzer, and ALMA have shown that brown dwarfs can be up to 70 times more massive than gas giants like Jupiter, yet they do not have enough mass for their cores to burn nuclear fuel and radiate starlight.

(NASA’s Webb Telescope to Investigate Mysterious Brown Dwarfs, NASA)