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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.
V. G. Molinari, L. Pollachini
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 91 | Number 4 | December 1985 | Pages 458-469
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE85-A18362
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A set of equations that describes the diffusion of thermal neutrons is obtained from the energy-dependent Boltzmann equation. These equations are analogous to the phenomenological laws of the thermodynamic theory of irreversible processes and show, for instance, that as a temperature gradient produces a neutron current (Soret effect), a density gradient yields an energy flow (Dufour effect). The method is applied to the “two-temperature problem” in order to gain better insight into the thermal diffusion phenomenon. The thermal diffusion of neutrons is shown to strongly depend on the scattering law of the two media where neutrons diffuse, and it is determined that some of the conclusions previously obtained are valid only for the case of a heavy gas moderator with the scattering cross section independent of the energy.