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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. Matsukawa, Y. Miura, T. Kimura, K. Watanabe, T. Kubota, S. Kawashima
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 684-688
Magnetics and Superconductors (Poster Session) | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A11963694
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) is one of the key components that constitute a quench-protection circuit for a superconducting coil. A water-cooled VCB having a continuous high-current carrying-capacity was newly designed and its model test was conducted. The target values of its performance were determined from the viewpoint of application to quench protection for superconducting coils in fusion devices as follows: (1) continuous current-carrying capacity of 25 kA or more, and (2) current interruption rating of 50 kA or more. Since thermally critical parts of the VCB are contacting surfaces of its electrodes, a key issue of the design is how to remove the heat generated on the surfaces in the electrodes from the vacuum area. For heat removal with good efficiency, the VCB was designed to possess a short fixed rod with a large coil outside the vacuum area and a fat movable rod where a water-cooling channel can be bored. Thus the new VCB has an up-down asymmetrical structure having the coil that provides co-axial magnetic field for stabilizing the current interruption property. Thermal characteristics of the VCB were analyzed by computer simulation. In addition, a model of the VCB was fabricated and tested to evaluate the characteristics. At the test of the model VCB, it was proved that the water-cooled VCB with a current-carrying capability of about 18 kA is feasible.