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ANS Student Conference 2025
April 3–5, 2025
Albuquerque, NM|The University of New Mexico
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Uncertainty contributes to lowest uranium spot prices in 18 months
A combination of plentiful supply and uncertain demand resulted in spot pricing for uranium closing out March below $64 per pound, with dips down to about $63.50 during mid-March—the lowest futures prices in 18 months, according to tracking by analysis firm Trading Economics. Spot prices have also fallen steadily since the beginning of 2024. Meanwhile, long-term prices have held steady at about $80 per pound at the end of March, according to Canadian front-end uranium mining, milling, and conversion company Cameco.
Son N. Quang, Jonathan Wing, Nicholas R. Brown, G. Ivan Maldonado
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 79 | Number 8 | November 2023 | Pages 973-988
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2023.2185043
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This study describes an application of the SERPENT 2 code with the TENDL-2017 nuclear data library and the latest available model features of the Fusion Energy System Studies–Fusion Nuclear Science Facility (FNSF), to evaluate the activation of components after shutdown at 1, 10, and 100 years, assuming a plant lifetime of 8.5 full-power years. The primary parameters evaluated include the specific activity, decay heat, and waste disposal rating (WDR). The specific activity and decay heat are calculated with SERPENT 2 using a 360-deg model of the FNSF, while the WDR is calculated and classified based on the waste disposal limits established by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission under 10 CFR 61.55 as well as by using the Fetter approach.
A python-based script developed for a previous high-level waste classification and analysis study was implemented and adapted to this research to calculate the WDR by comparing nuclide concentrations to the values established in 10 CFR 61.55 to generate a waste classification for each component surveyed. As only three short-lived isotopes have limitations for classifications beyond Class A, of which only 63Ni is present in appreciable quantities, there is a limit to the amount that short-lived isotopes contribute to the most significant waste analyzed here. In most cases, a handful of long-lived isotopes can be problematic, such as 59Ni and 94Nb, for example, which are solely responsible for multiple Class C classifications.
The results herein reported heavily depend on the specific materials and mass/volume fractions in the specific model used in this study, which has changed and evolved since the inception of the FNSF concept and past studies. Therefore, the more significant contributions of this study may be the development of a modeling and simulation toolkit and a strategy to perform these calculations, so to help evaluate and optimize future fusion facilities.
