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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.
Peter H. Titus, H. Zhang, A. Lumsdaine, W. D. McGinnis, J. Lore, H. Neilson, T. Brown, J. Boscary, A. Peacock, Joris Fellinger
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 68 | Number 2 | September 2015 | Pages 272-276
Technical Paper | Proceedings of TOFE-2014 | doi.org/10.13182/FST15-105
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Early implementation of divertor components for the Wendelstein 7-X stellarator will include an inertially cooled system of divertor elements called the Test Divertor Unit (TDU). One part of this system is a scraper element that is intended to explore methods of mitigating heat flux on the ends of the TDU elements. This system will be in place in 2017, after a run period that will involve no divertor, and will precede steady state operation with actively cooled divertors scheduled for 2019. The TDU scraper element is an experimental device with uncertain requirements and with loading conditions which will developed as a part of the experiment. The pattern of heat flux may vary from currently predicted distributions and intensities. The design of the scraper element must accommodate this uncertainty. Originally the mechanical design was to be based on extensive studies for the monoblock-based design of an actively cooled system. An obvious simplification is the elimination of the manifolding needed for the water cooling. The wall panels on which the panels are mounted are to be maintained at 200C or less. Thermal ratcheting of the tiles, supporting structures, and backing structures is managed with adequate cooldown times, thermal anchors, where allowed, and radiative shields. Water cooling of the shields was proposed and rejected. Better radiation modeling is showing less need for multiple shields, but during initial run periods, the scraper element will have to be restricted to an acceptable operating envelope. Thermal instrumentation is recommended.