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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. Salvatores, I. Slessarev, A. Tchistiakov
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 130 | Number 3 | November 1998 | Pages 309-319
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE98-A2008
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A general physical approach and simplified algorithm have been developed that allow utilities to choose their strategy for treatment of the most dangerous long-lived fission products (either to incinerate under neutron flux or to store in underground repository) as well as to assess the overall neutron consumption needed for their incineration in a fast neutron spectrum. It has been demonstrated that if nuclear power can solve transuranic (TRU) waste transmutation problems and be able to incinerate the most toxic long-lived nuclides, such as Tc, I, and Cs (it demands ~0.15 n/fission for all these nuclides without isotopic separation), then the long-term radiotoxicity in the underground repository will not exceed the initial radiotoxicity of uranium fuel. This is one of the most important criteria of the radiologically clean nuclear power concept. Hence, apart from TRU transmutation problems, the emphasis is now on long-lived fission product incineration.