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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.
Donald C. Coonfield, Grover Tuck, Harold E. Clark, Bruce B. Ernst
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 39 | Number 3 | March 1970 | Pages 320-328
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE70-A19993
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Critical masses have been determined by experiment and by calculation for enriched-uranium-metal spherical shells moderated internally with a sphere of mild steel of radius 8.01 cm. The shells were reflected with various thicknesses of mild steel followed by an effectively infinite amount of oil. The points representing critical mass as a function of the thickness of the steel reflector are not related by a smooth curve. The irregularity appears to be most severe for a 3-cm-thick steel reflector and is due to the resonance in the neutron elastic-scattering cross section of iron.