My uninitiated mind would think that it would be the other way around.
I was watching a video about nuclear power. The guy being interviewed was wearing safety glasses and nitrile gloves while holding a uranium fuel pellet. Then the camera pans to a screen showing the robot handling spent fuel in the bottom of a 40-foot deep pool of heavy water. The pool is in a room behind a big red door with every “do not enter” warning imaginable. I would think the fuel would be less radioactive coming out than going in.
In: Chemistry
Uranium-235 fuel decays by alpha decay. Alpha particles are big and charged so your general “everyday” PPE will protect you sufficiently. After being in a reactor for a few years there’s all sorts of other byproducts, including those that break down via gamma decay. Gamma rays will go through quite a lot more materials, and so require quite a bit more in the way of protection.
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