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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.
C. E. Dickerman, E. S. Sowa, J. H. Monaweck, A. Barsell
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 18 | Number 3 | March 1964 | Pages 319-328
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE64-A20052
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Experiments have been performed in-pile, using the Transient Reactor Test Facility, to study the meltdown behavior under transient heating of metallic Experimental Breeder Reactor-II fuel elements contained in stagnant sodium. Threshold of failure, modes of failure, and post-experiment distribution of fuel were obtained for a range of experimental conditions including uniform axial power and axial-power profile shaped to approximate a typical power profile of a fast-reactor core. Samples were exposed both with sodium initially at saturation conditions, and with sodium pressurized to inhibit boiling. Although the presence of stagnant sodium was found to modify qualitatively the results found previously for dry EBR-II samples, the changes were not great, and results were consistent with those for dry elements.