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June 16–19, 2024
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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.
L. EL-Guebaly, L. Mynsberge, ARIES-ACT Team
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 1 | January 2015 | Pages 107-124
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-791
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The integration of nuclear assessment (neutronics, shielding, and activation) is an essential element to the success of any fusion design and represents a major issue for power plant studies in particular. High fidelity in nuclear results mandates performing state-of-the-art nuclear analyses. This has been achieved in recent years through coupling the computer-aided-design system directly with three-dimensional neutronics codes to preserve all geometrically complex design elements and speed up feedback and iterations. This paper outlines several major nuclear issues addressed for the recently completed ARIES-ACT1 tokamak conceptual power plant study. An integral nuclear approach was deemed necessary to deliver an optimal design. This approach considered the overall configuration, design requirements (including tritium self-sufficiency), smart selection of low-activation material for all components, radial build optimization and definition, and safety and environmental concerns. This paper reports the main results of this integral approach that aims at considering several effects that influence the global behavior of a complex power plant such as ARIES-ACT1.