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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.
Takanobu Kamei, Tadashi Yoshida, Toshikazu Takeda, Takuya Umano
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 91 | Number 1 | September 1985 | Pages 11-33
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-A17126
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The prediction accuracy of the burnup characteristics of large liquid-metal fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs) is very hard to evaluate because of the unavailability of the direct experimental information. A quantitative evaluation was performed on the accuracy of the burnup property by use of the sensitivity coefficients in a large LMFBR and the covariance matrix of nuclear data. Also evaluated was the decrease in prediction error when the cross-section set was adjusted by the use of experimental data, such as criticality, reaction rate ratios, and others. It was concluded that accuracy with the direct use of current nuclear data is ±30% for burnup reactivity loss and ±5% for breeding ratio. On the other hand, the accuracy would be improved to ±18% and ±2.5% by utilizing the experimental data obtained on the zero-power plutonium reactor assembly.