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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.
Marc A. Cooper, Edward W. Larsen
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 137 | Number 1 | January 2001 | Pages 1-13
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE00-34
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new method for efficiently solving global Monte Carlo particle transport problems is presented. (In these problems, flux information is desired across the entire system, not just at a small number of detector locations.) The method is based on the use of a weight window that distributes Monte Carlo particles uniformly throughout the system. This (a) ensures that all subregions of the system are adequately sampled and (b) controls the particle weights, even in subregions far from sources. The weight window is constructed from an approximate deterministic solution of the forward transport problem. It is argued that a weight window based on the forward transport solution is more appropriate for global problems than the more familiar concept of basing a weight window on an adjoint solution for source-detector problems. It is also shown that by using Monte Carlo-generated Eddington factors in deterministic solutions of the quasi-diffusion equation, one can inexpensively compute updated forward-based weight windows and obtain a more efficient global Monte Carlo calculation.