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Conference Spotlight
2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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NNSA awards BWXT $1.5B defense fuels contract
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded BWX Technologies a contract valued at $1.5 billion to build a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) pilot plant in Tennessee in support of the administration’s efforts to build out a domestic supply of unobligated enriched uranium for defense-related nuclear fuel.
N. Levitz, D. E. Grosvenor, S. Vogler, F. G. Teats, N. Quattropani
Nuclear Technology | Volume 20 | Number 1 | October 1973 | Pages 60-63
Technical Note | Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT73-A31334
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A continuous fluidized-bed process for the conversion of uranium/plutonium nitrates to oxides is under development to facilitate the recycle of plutonium in the nuclear fuel cycle. The basic process consists of two steps, each performed in a separate fluid-bed reactor: (a) codenitration at 375°C of uranyl nitrate-plutonium nitrate solutions to a UO3-PuO2 powder form, and (b) reduction of the UO3-PuO2 with hydrogen at 600°C to form UO2-PuO2. Pilot-plant denitration studies with uranyl nitrate-plutonium nitrate solutions containing uranium/plutonium ratios of 50 and 4, and plutonium nitrate solution alone are described, as well as reduction of UO3-PuO2 powder. Examination of the UO3-PuO2 denitration product by autoradiographic and electron microprobe techniques showed that the PuO2 was distributed in the UO3 matrix with a high degree of homogeneity. The conversion process appears to be applicable over the entire range of uranium-plutonium concentrations and for plutonium nitrate alone. The suitability of this product for the fabrication of fuel pellets is being studied in cooperation with nuclear fuel manufacturers.
