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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. H. Lloyd
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 17 | Number 3 | November 1963 | Pages 452-456
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE63-A17398
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An anion exchange process for the recovery of americium, curium, and rare earths contained in the waste effluent from plutonium processing has been developed and tested on a laboratory scale. In the process the waste, which is a solution of americium, curium, aluminum, and fission products, in concentrated nitric acid, is concentrated by evaporation until a temperature of 140°C is reached. This removes excess acid, and the proper feed concentration of 2.34 M Al(NO3)3 is obtained by dilution. The americium, curium, and rare earths are sorbed on Dowex 1–10X resin; aluminum is washed from the column with 8 M LiN03; and the americium, curium, and rare earths are eluted with 0.65 M HN03. In laboratory demonstrations of this process made with americium tracer and macro amounts of rare earths, americium losses were undetectable, aluminum decontamination factors were 250, and rare earth concentration in the product was as great as 8.5 gm/liter.