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Division Spotlight
Fuel Cycle & Waste Management
Devoted to all aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle including waste management, worldwide. Division specific areas of interest and involvement include uranium conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication, management (in-core and ex-core) and recycle; transportation; safeguards; high-level, low-level and mixed waste management and disposal; public policy and program management; decontamination and decommissioning environmental restoration; and excess weapons materials disposition.
Meeting Spotlight
International Conference on Mathematics and Computational Methods Applied to Nuclear Science and Engineering (M&C 2025)
April 27–30, 2025
Denver, CO|The Westin Denver Downtown
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Latest News
TerraPower begins U.K. regulatory approval process
Seattle-based TerraPower signaled its interest this week in building its Natrium small modular reactor in the United Kingdom, the company announced.
TerraPower sent a letter to the U.K.’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, formally establishing its intention to enter the U.K. generic design assessment (GDA) process. This is TerraPower’s first step in deployment of its Natrium technology—a 345-MW sodium fast reactor coupled with a molten salt energy storage unit—on the international stage.
C. Lombardi, A. Mazzola
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 122 | Number 2 | February 1996 | Pages 229-239
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE96-A24157
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The plutonium that comes from dismantled warheads and that is already stockpiled from commercial fuel reprocessing has raised many proposals for its burning in a safe and economical manner. The utilization is examined of current pressurized water reactors (PWRs) that are partially fed with a nonfertile oxide-type fuel, while the rest of the core is still fed with standard 235U-enriched fuel. The unconventional fuel consists of PuO2 diluted in an inert matrix, which should be highly radiation resistant, scarcely neutron absorbent, and chemically stable and which allows the final disposal of the discharged fuel without any treatment. Commercial PWRs operating in a once-through cycle scheme can transmute 97 to 99% of239Pu and 71 to 84% of total initially loaded reactor- and weapons-grade plutonium, respectively. The remnant plutonium is in a proliferation-resistant condition. The high initial reactivity of the plutonium-bearing rods causes a high initial rod power peak and continuously decreasing power generation in these rods during the irradiation. A less pronounced rod power peak in UO2 rods at end of life has to be addressed. The reactivity coefficients are, in absolute terms, slightly lower than the standard UO2 fuel ones.