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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.
Yasuhisa Oya, Takuji Oda, Satoru Tanaka, Kenji Okuno
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 60 | Number 4 | November 2011 | Pages 1423-1426
Detritiation and Isotope Separation | Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Tritium Science and Technology (Part 2) | doi.org/10.13182/FST11-A12698
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The tritium recovery technique at the steam generator in fast breeder reactor under the double pipe concept was studied by both of experiment and simulation. The permeation of tritium was lowered at ~1000ppm oxygen in Ar as a recovery gas. But tritium is easily converted to water form by adding 10ppm oxygen. To explain these experimental results and expand the tritium behavior at double pipe concept, DFT and Monte Carlo simulations were applied. The surface oxide layer mode was developed and stability of tritium was evaluated. It was found that most stable structure was formed in the oxide layer although tritium is unstable at the surface of oxide layer. Tritium permeation rate was almost the same even if the oxide layer was formed, but the tritium retention is enhanced by adding the oxide layer. To expand these results to tritium permeation and recovery model, numerical analysis was performed as a function of sweep rate, material thickness and thickness of surface oxide layer. It was found that control of sweep rate is one of key factors. But the design restriction, control of oxide layer thickness by flowing O2+Ar gas will be potential option for the recovery of tritium at steam generator.