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Westinghouse, Nordion, and PSEG team up to produce Co‑60 in the United States
This past January, Westinghouse Electric Company, Nordion, and PSEG Nuclear formalized agreements to implement newly developed cobalt-60 production technology at Units 1 and 2 of PSEG’s Salem nuclear power plant in New Jersey, with the Co-60 to be supplied to Nordion. Through an ongoing joint initiative, the companies aim to harness U.S. pressurized water reactors to produce a key medical isotope and build the first commercial-scale Co-60 production platform in the United States.
Alex Galperin
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 86 | Number 1 | January 1984 | Pages 112-115
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE84-A17976
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An alternative method of thorium utilization in light water reactors (LWRs) is proposed. The main idea of the proposed concept is to apply a different fuel management scheme for the neutron-producing part of the core, the uranium seed, and for the neutron-absorbing part of the core, the thorium blanket. An example of the specific design based on this concept was analyzed, and preliminary evaluation indicated the potential of significant savings in uranium consumption. The fuel cycle of the proposed concept includes reprocessing and re-fabrication of uranium fuel only, without separation of plutonium and 233U isotopes. Such a fuel cycle offers higher proliferation resistance compared with the LWR recycle mode of operation or the light water breeder reactor fuel cycle. Finally, the feasibility of the reactor design based on the proposed concept may be established after detailed thermal-hydraulic analysis and study of the irradiation behavior of the thorium-based fuel.