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Conference Spotlight
Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Powering the future: How the DOE is fueling nuclear fuel cycle research and development
As global interest in nuclear energy surges, the United States must remain at the forefront of research and development to ensure national energy security, advance nuclear technologies, and promote international cooperation on safety and nonproliferation. A crucial step in achieving this is analyzing how funding and resources are allocated to better understand how to direct future research and development. The Department of Energy has spearheaded this effort by funding hundreds of research projects across the country through the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP). This initiative has empowered dozens of universities to collaborate toward a nuclear-friendly future.
Hangbok Choi, Won Il Ko, Myung Seung Yang
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 135 | Number 2 | June 2000 | Pages 150-164
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE00-A2131
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method to reduce the fuel composition heterogeneity effect on the core performance parameters has been studied for DUPIC fuel, which is made from spent pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel by a dry refabrication process. This study focuses on the reactivity control method, which uses slightly enriched, depleted, or natural uranium to minimize the additional cost on the manufacturing of DUPIC fuel, when adjusting the excess reactivity of the spent PWR fuel. To reduce the variation of isotopic composition of the DUPIC fuel, interassembly mixing operations were assumed to be carried out three times. Three options have been considered: reactivity control by slightly enriched and depleted uranium, reactivity control by natural uranium for high-reactivity spent PWR fuels, and reactivity control by natural uranium for intermediate-reactivity spent PWR fuels. The results of this study have shown that the reactivity of DUPIC fuel can be tightly controlled with the minimum amount of fresh uranium feed. For reactivity control by slightly enriched and depleted uranium, all spent PWR fuel can be utilized as DUPIC fuel, and the fraction of fresh uranium feed is 3.4% on the average. For reactivity control by natural uranium, ~88% of spent PWR fuel can be utilized as DUPIC fuel when intermediate-reactivity spent PWR fuels are used, and the amount of natural uranium feed needed to control the DUPIC fuel reactivity is negligible.