Nonproliferation Design Challenge

(Part One of a Three-Part Interactive Series) The future of U.S. nuclear energy depends not only on technological innovation, but on deliberate design choices that integrate nonproliferation, safeguards, and nuclear material stewardship from the outset. Fuel Cycle Futures: The Nonproliferation Design Challenge is an interactive, team-based workshop that places participants in the role of architects of a future U.S. nuclear fuel cycle, tasked with supporting advanced reactor deployment while minimizing proliferation risk and ensuring long-term accountability. Designed as Part One of a three-part interactive series spanning major 2026 nuclear conferences, this session emphasizes early-stage design decisions and their downstream consequences. Participants—drawn from industry, government, national laboratories, academia, and the student community—will collaborate in interdisciplinary teams to construct a plausible U.S. fuel cycle architecture for the 2035 timeframe. Teams must balance competing objectives including deployability, cost, domestic manufacturing readiness, safeguards robustness, and national security considerations. During the design sprint, teams select among predefined options related to enrichment approaches, facility siting, material flows, and safeguards integration. Facilitators introduce structured “stress injects,” such as supply chain disruptions, regulatory changes, or safeguards anomalies, requiring teams to adapt their designs in real time. Each team then presents its architecture and rationale to a mock interagency review panel, simulating the scrutiny faced by real-world nuclear programs. This session is intentionally non-competitive and non-proprietary, emphasizing learning, discussion, and cross-disciplinary understanding. By foregrounding nonproliferation and stewardship as core design constraints rather than after-the-fact requirements, the exercise reinforces the role engineers and designers play in shaping the long-term security and credibility of the nuclear enterprise. This workshop is well suited for students, early-career professionals, and experienced practitioners alike, and serves as the conceptual foundation for the subsequent tabletop and negotiation exercises in this three-part series.

Discussion

To join the conversation, you must be logged in and registered for the meeting.

Register NowLog In