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The busyness of the nuclear fuel supply chain
Ken Petersenpresident@ans.org
With all that is happening in the industry these days, the nuclear fuel supply chain is still a hot topic. The Russian assault in Ukraine continues to upend the “where” and “how” of attaining nuclear fuel—and it has also motivated U.S. legislators to act.
Two years into the Russian war with Ukraine, things are different. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, authorizing $700 million in funding to support production of high-assay low-enriched uranium in the United States. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy this January issued a $500 million request for proposals to stimulate new HALEU production. The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024 includes $2.7 billion in funding for new uranium enrichment production. This funding was diverted from the Civil Nuclear Credits program and will only be released if there is a ban on importing Russian uranium into the United States—which could happen by the time this column is published, as legislation that bans Russian uranium has passed the House as of this writing and is headed for the Senate. Also being considered is legislation that would sanction Russian uranium. Alternatively, the Biden-Harris administration may choose to ban Russian uranium without legislation in order to obtain access to the $2.7 billion in funding.
Kazuya Ohgama, Hiroki Katagiri, Atsushi Takegoshi, Taira Hazama
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 12 | December 2021 | Pages 1810-1820
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1846481
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In the prototype fast breeder reactor Monju, fixed absorber worth was measured as the difference of core reactivity measured by control rod worth between cores with and without a single fixed absorber or three fixed absorbers. In this paper, the measurements are evaluated in detail, and their reliability and usefulness as validation data are investigated through a comparison with calculations using the latest neutronics design methodology developed at Japan Atomic Energy Agency. Calculated-to-experiment values and their uncertainties of fixed absorber worth were 1.00 ± 0.05 and 1.02 ± 0.04, respectively. Through this study, the measurements and calculations were found consistent and reliable.