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NRC grants license for TRISO-X fuel manufacturing using HALEU
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted X-energy subsidiary TRISO-X a special nuclear material license for high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel fabrication. The license applies to TRISO-X’s first two planned commercial facilities, known as TX-1 and TX-2, for an initial 40-year period. The facilities are set to be the first new nuclear fuel fabrication plants licensed by the NRC in more than 50 years.
Suhas Bhandarkar, Ted Baumann, Noel Alfonso, Cliff Thomas, Kevin Baker, Alastair Moore, Cindy Larson, Don Bennett, John Sain, Abbas Nikroo
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 73 | Number 2 | March 2018 | Pages 194-209
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2017.1406248
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Low-density foam liners are seen as a means to mitigate hohlraum wall motion that can interfere with the inner set of beams that are pointed toward the middle section of the hohlraum. These liners need to meet several requirements, most notably the material choice and the maximum allowable solid fraction and thickness, which necessitate development of new processing capabilities. Here, we discuss our strategy and work on fabrication of a tantalum oxide foam liner and its assembly into targets for the National Ignition Facility (NIF). In particular, we discuss our approach to finding solutions to the unique challenges that come up in working with such low-density materials so as to be able establish a viable platform for production of cryogenic targets for NIF with foam-lined hohlraums.