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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.
Tomoyuki Uwaba, Junichi Nemoto, Masahiro Ito, Ikuo Ishitani, Norihiro Doda, Masaaki Tanaka, Satoshi Ohtsuka
Nuclear Technology | Volume 207 | Number 8 | August 2021 | Pages 1280-1289
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2020.1810977
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Computer codes for irradiation behavior analysis of a fuel pin and a fuel pin bundle and for coolant thermal-hydraulic analysis were coupled into an integrated code system. In the system, each code provides data required by other codes, and the analyzed results are shared among them. The system allows for the synthesizing of analyses of thermal, chemical, and mechanical behaviors in a fuel subassembly under irradiation. A test analysis was made for a fuel subassembly containing a mixed oxide fuel pin bundle irradiated in a fast reactor. The results of the analysis were presented with transverse cross-sectional images of the fuel subassembly and three-dimensional images of a fuel pin and fuel pin bundle models. For detailed evaluation, various irradiation behaviors of all fuel pins in the subassembly were analyzed and correlated with irradiation conditions.