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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.
Qiang Huang, Jin Jiang
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 5 | May 2021 | Pages 711-725
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1794436
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
One of the most important considerations in the design of electronic systems for post-accident monitoring in a nuclear power plant is how to deal with the complex and uncertain radiation environments. Without using special design methodologies and adequate protection, nonradiation-hardened commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronic components can easily be damaged. In this paper, a new design methodology is proposed so that COTS components can be used in building post-accident monitoring systems (PAMSs). To validate the effectiveness of the methodology, a prototype wireless post-accident monitoring system has been designed, implemented, and evaluated in a 60Co gamma radiation environment. It has been concluded that even at a dose rate of 20 krad (Si)/h, the prototype system operates satisfactorily even after being irradiated for 21 h. The system also operates satisfactorily at a low dose rate of 200 rad (Si)/h. It can be concluded that, even with COTS components, the proposed design can effectively extend the lifespan of post-accident monitoring systems in different radiation environments. Based on the experimental results, it can be said with confidence that the developed radiation-tolerant wireless monitoring system can operate for at least 8 h under the highest observed dose rate (530 Sv/h) encountered during the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster and would have been able to provide crucial information to first responders following the accident.