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First astatine-labeled compound shipped in the U.S.
The Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center (NIDC) on March 31 announced the successful long-distance shipment in the United States of a biologically active compound labeled with the medical radioisotope astatine-211 (At-211). Because previous shipments have included only the “bare” isotope, the NIDC has described the development as “unleashing medical innovation.”
Stella Maris Oggianu, Hee Cheon No, Mujid S. Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 143 | Number 3 | September 2003 | Pages 256-269
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT03-A3415
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A strategy is proposed for the assessment of nuclear fuel material economic potential use in future light water reactors (LWRs). In this methodology, both the required enrichment and the fuel performance limits are considered. In order to select the best fuel candidate, the optimal burnup that produces the lowest annual fuel cost within the burnup potential for a given fuel material and smear density ratio is determined.Several nuclear materials are presented as examples of the application of the methodology proposed in this paper. The alternative fuels considered include uranium dioxide (UO2), uranium carbide (UC), uranium nitride (UN), metallic uranium (U-Zr alloy), combined thorium and uranium oxides (ThO2/UO2), and combined thorium and uranium metals (U/Th). For these examples, a typical LWR lattice geometry in a zirconium-based cladding was assumed. The uncertainties in the results presented are large due to the scarcity of experimental data regarding the behavior of the considered materials at high burnups. Also, chemical compatibility issues are to be considered separately.The same methodology can be applied in the future to evaluate the economic potential of other nuclear fuel materials including different cladding designs, dispersions of ceramics into ceramics, dispersions of ceramics into metals, and also for geometries other than the traditional circular fuel pin.
