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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.
Thomas V. Prevenslik
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 34 | Number 2 | September 1998 | Pages 128-136
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST98-A58
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Sonoluminescence (SL) may be explained by the Planck theory of SL, which treats the bubbles as miniature collapsing IRasers having a resonant frequency that always increases as the bubble collapses. Microwaves are created at frequencies proportional to the collapse velocity while optical waves in standing resonance with the characteristic dimension of the IRaser cavity are absorbed by the bubble wall molecules. The microwaves are absorbed at ambient temperature and accumulate to visible-ultraviolet photon levels through the rotation quantum state of the bubble wall molecules. In the Planck theory of SL, the collapse shape in multiple-bubble SL (MBSL) is treated as a pancake, whereas in single-bubble SL (SBSL) the collapse shape is treated as spherical. High bubble gas temperatures are unlikely in MBSL because the bubble gases in a pancake collapse are squeezed radially outward in almost constant volume at ambient temperature. However, SL spectra in MBSL are found to be far more intense than SBSL, yet the SBSL collapse shape is spherical. Because a bubble gas temperature increase is unlikely in MBSL, and because MBSL is more intense than SBSL, it is concluded that a temperature increase in an SBSL collapse is also unlikely even though the collapse is spherical. Hence, the prospects for hot fusion in a spherical SBSL collapse are not encouraging. However, a limited number of SL-induced fusion events in D2O may be possible in MBSL and SBSL as the bubble walls approach the spacing between D2O molecules in the liquid state. On average, reactions between the D's on colliding D2O bubble wall molecules do not occur as the Planck energy is limited to ~1.3 keV, but some fusion events with a Planck energy >10 keV are not impossible.