ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
Latest Magazine Issues
Aug 2026
Jan 2026
2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
October 2026
Nuclear Technology
September 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
August 2026
Latest News
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.
Charles D. Scott
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 34 | Number 3 | December 1968 | Pages 214-223
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE68-A21087
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The cosorption of water and carbon dioxide by molecular sieves is a potential method of removing these contaminants from the helium coolant of a nuclear gas cooled reactor. This system was experimentally investigated by both differential- and deep-bed tests at a temperature of 25°C; at pressures of 1 to 30 atm for differential tests and 10 to 30 atm for deep-bed tests; with gas flow rates of 0.0010 to 0.0138 g/(cm2 sec); and with inlet water or carbon dioxide concentrations of 3.4 × 10−8 to 9.3 × 10−7 g moles/cm3. These tests showed that the system could be described by the rate limiting step of intracrystalline diffusion with diffusion coefficients at 25°C of 1.92 × 10−10 cm2/sec for water and 3.11 × 10−10 cm2/sec for CO2. Sorbed CO2 was found to be irreversibly replaced by sorbed water, and the CO2 loading was dependent on water concentration. Differential equations were derived to describe the system of the cosorption of two interacting fluid species with Freundlich-type isotherms in a flowing fluid by a fixed bed of solids in which the sorption rate is controlled by intracrystalline diffusion. The set of differential equations was solved by a finite difference method for the case of water and carbon dioxide cosorption by molecular sieves. Generalized breakthrough curves for both water and CO2 were determined, and their use for design purposes is demonstrated.