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Front-end nuclear fuel supply cooperation: Turning allied interdependence into strategic advantage
The global nuclear revival, which is fueled by unprecedented demand for firm, affordable, dispatchable power for artificial intelligence and data center build-out, energy security imperatives, and climate commitments, has exposed a structural reality of the Western fuel cycle: No single allied nation currently possesses the full suite of front-end capabilities. From mining through conversion, enrichment, fabrication, and the emerging deconversion and metallization steps required for reactor fuels, capability is distributed across Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States (collectively, the “Sapporo Five”), as well as a small group of close partners.
M. T. Swinhoe
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 167 | Number 2 | February 2011 | Pages 171-175
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE09-97
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Neutron coincidence measurements of plutonium samples with uncertainties <0.5% could reduce the amount of costly destructive analysis required for nuclear material accountancy in plutonium handling plants. The ratio of (, n) emission to spontaneous fission neutron emission, , of plutonium samples is important to the interpretation of neutron coincidence measurements. When the “known alpha” analysis method is used, an error on the value propagates to approximately the same percentage error on the measured plutonium mass. Molality data of Charrin and the SOURCES code have been used to update the calculation of for both pure plutonium nitrate solutions and plutonium/uranyl nitrate solutions of different concentrations and acidity. This paper gives equations for the density of the solution as a function of heavy metal concentration and for the weight factors that can be used in the analysis of neutron coincidence measurements.