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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.
R. D. McKnight
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 75 | Number 1 | July 1980 | Pages 111-125
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE80-A20322
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A detailed validation study of the SDX fast reactor cell homogenization code, Benoist anisotropic diffusion coefficients, and an associated three-dimensional to one-dimensional unit cell modeling procedure has been in progress. These earlier results have investigated the standard zero power reactor (ZPR) plate-type unit cell The present study represents a complimentary validation effort for the ZPR pin calandria-type unit cell. The unit cell loading selected for this work consisted of a 5.08- × 5.08- × 30.48-cm voided calandria loaded with a 4 × 4 array of 0.957-cm (diam) × 15.24-cm mixed-oxide rods (15% PuO2/UO2). This unit cell was used in the pin zone measurements of the ZPR gas-cooled fast reactor program and also in the sodium-voided pin zone measurements of ZPR-6 Assembly 7. The validation effort consists of direct comparison with results of VIM (continuous energy Monte Carlo) calculations. The SDX/Gelbard methods have been shown to adequately predict both nonleakage and leakage effects for the voided pin calandria unit cell.