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Division Spotlight
Materials Science & Technology
The objectives of MSTD are: promote the advancement of materials science in Nuclear Science Technology; support the multidisciplines which constitute it; encourage research by providing a forum for the presentation, exchange, and documentation of relevant information; promote the interaction and communication among its members; and recognize and reward its members for significant contributions to the field of materials science in nuclear technology.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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How robust is HALEU from a nonproliferation perspective?
Shikha Prasad
High-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) has emerged as a popular fuel choice for advanced small modular reactors due to its long power production periods before refueling. It is currently being pursued by TerraPower, X-energy, BWX Technologies, Kairos, Oklo, and other reactor companies. HALEU has a uranium-235 enrichment ranging from 5 percent to 20 percent, whereas traditional LWRs use low-enriched uranium fuel enriched up to 5 percent.
HALEU will provide power for longer durations, compared with traditional LWRs. But could it also provide an opportunity for more rapid proliferation, as is speculated in a 2023 National Academy of Sciences report on advanced nuclear reactors (nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/26630/)?
If a nuclear proliferator conspires to divert fresh nuclear fuel for weapons production when it has not been used in a reactor, the effort required in separative work units (SWUs) to enrich U-235 from 5 percent to 90 percent and that required to enrich from 20 percent to 90 percent are both very small, compared with the effort required to enrich U-235 from its natural abundance to the initial 5 percent.
International Conference on Physics of Reactors 2024 Plenary SPeaker
Director
Nuclear Science and Engineering Division
Argonne National Laboratory, USA
Dr. Temitope Taiwo is the Director of Argonne’s Nuclear Science and Engineering Division. He has worked in the nuclear industry, research laboratory, and U.S. government in the areas of reactor design, methods development, and analysis. He has been at Argonne since 1990 and in that time has led research teams and developed computational tools and methods and performed analysis of nuclear energy systems, including fast and thermal reactors. Dr. Taiwo was previously the National Technical Director of the Systems Analysis and Integration Campaign of the DOE Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Supply Chain office. He was formerly a co-Dean of the Modeling, Experimentation and Validation (MeV) Summer School. He is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS) and currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the society. Dr. Taiwo has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Engineering, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.Sc. in Engineering Physics from the University of Ife, Nigeria.
Last modified March 18, 2024, 7:28am PDT
