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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.
M. C. Carroll, G. H. Miley
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 10 | Number 3 | November 1986 | Pages 770-775
Impurity Control | Proceedings of the Seveth Topical Meeting on the Technology of Fusion Energy (Reno, Nevada, June 15–19, 1986) | doi.org/10.13182/FST86-A24833
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A primarily analytical thermal analysis model is presented which allows for calculation of temperatures in fusion reactor first walls. The model utilizes input from plasma physics calculations coupling a 2-1/2 dimensional geometric analysis with a 1-dimensional heat conduction treatment to determine temperature profiles over the surface of and within the first wall. The results are primarily applicable to the steady-state operation of magnetic confinement devices such as tokamaks. Effects of wall geometry, toroidal curvature, and wall corrugation are considered in computing local power loadings from bremsstrahlung, cyclotron radiation, charged particles, and neutrons. Temperature solutions based on these loadings are developed by expanding into a MacLaurin series and utilizing the principle of superposition. A sequential calculation scheme is employed in lieu of traditional matrix methods in determining temperature distributions in composite walls. The model and corresponding solution methods are applied to three illustrative fusion reactor designs. Significant gains in accuracy are indicated over thermal analysis methods previously used.