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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.
Praneeth Kandlakunta, Matthew Van Zile, Lei Raymond Cao
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 196 | Number 11 | November 2022 | Pages 1383-1396
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2091905
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The feasibility of using solar cells for post-detonation monitoring, and more broadly, gamma-ray monitoring, is evaluated using Monte Carlo simulations and experiments in this work. We measured the short-circuit current Isc response of commercial silicon (Si) solar cells to 137Cs and 60Co gamma rays. A clear response of both mono- and polycrystalline Si solar cells to 137Cs and 60Co gamma rays was obtained in good agreement with the simulations. Radiation effects in solar cells due to accumulated gamma-ray dose were noticed as the drop in Isc and open-circuit voltage Voc. The atomic displacement cross section of the produced secondary fast electrons and nonionizing energy loss (NIEL) concepts were revisited to understand the principal gamma-radiation damage mechanism in solar cell devices. Analytical computations of and NIEL of electrons convoluted with simulated Compton electron distributions in Si enabled a fundamental understanding of the gamma-radiation effects and recovery mechanism in solar cells, further supporting the experimental results. Different from the ionization effects in the polymer and glass layers of a solar cell/panel, displacement damage in the Si p-n layer from gamma rays or fast electrons is much less than that from massive particles, which directly affects the charge collection performance fundamental to solar cell operation.