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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.
Akihide Hidaka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 208 | Number 2 | February 2022 | Pages 318-334
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2021.1929767
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The author previously proposed that glassy cesium-bearing microparticles [resulting uniquely from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station (FDNPS) accident] may have been formed by melting and atomization of glass fibers (GFs) of the high-efficiency particulate air filter in the standby gas treatment system line due to the flame and blast during the hydrogen explosion in Unit 3. Assuming that this hypothesis is correct, Type A could contain or accompany carbon, which ignites spontaneously above 623 K, because of the limited time to be heated up, the inclusion of carbon in the binder applied on the GF surface, and the closely located charcoal filter. As previous studies have not identified carbon, the present analyses were performed with an electron probe microanalyzer to determine whether Type A contains carbon. The results show that Type A contained carbon originating from the binder. Some nonspherical particles were accompanied by Type A, and the film surrounding Type A contained more carbon, which is thought to originate from the charcoal filter. These results cannot be explained by the other mechanisms proposed so far and can be explained consistently only by the author’s proposed hypothesis. Although it may be premature to determine Type A formation mechanisms, this information enables one to limit the temperature conditions of Type A formation.