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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.
Yuriy Divin and Hitesh Kumar B. Pandya
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 65 | Number 3 | May 2014 | Pages 399-405
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST13-713
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Electron cyclotron emission (ECE) from hot tokamak plasmas is recognized nowadays as a very informative diagnostic of main plasma parameters. Among several instruments developed to measure ECE, only a Martin-Puplett interferometer operates in a broadband frequency range of ECE from 70 to 1000 GHz. To derive the absolute radiation temperature of the plasma, a total measurement system, including front-end radiation collection, a transmission line, and the interferometer, is calibrated using a hot/cold calibration source. It takes a long time to calibrate the ECE system because of the high values of the noise equivalent power (NEP). A new technique, Hilbert-transform spectral analysis, is proposed for ITER plasma ECE spectral measurements. The operation principle, characteristics, and advantages of the corresponding Hilbert-transform spectrum analyzer (HTSA) based on a high-Tc Josephson detector are described. Because of the lower NEP values of the Josephson detector, this spectrum analyzer might demonstrate shorter calibration times than those for the Martin-Puplett interferometer. Because of a principal difference between Fourier and Hilbert transforms, the HTSA might have an additional advantage in retrieving harmonic ECE radiation from a continuous thermal background.