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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. Harjula, J. Lehto, A. Paajanen, L. Brodkin, E. Tusa
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 137 | Number 2 | February 2001 | Pages 206-214
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE01-A2186
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A transition metal hexacyanoferrate product CsTreat has been utilized at industrial scale for radioactive cesium separation at several nuclear power plants (NPPs) in several countries. A granular hexacyanoferrate ion exchanger has been used in packed-bed column mode operations for the removal of cesium from a variety of wastewater types. CsTreat beds have successfully purified both high-salt evaporator concentrates and dilute floor drain waters at NPPs in Finland and the United States. Furthermore, medium-active reprocessing solutions, containing high concentrations of sodium nitrate, have been decontaminated by a CsTreat bed at the Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute. These solutions are described as are other industrial applications of this ion exchange material, which, of all the commercial materials, has been shown to be the most selective exchanger for cesium. In addition, some prospective fields of hexacyanoferrate utilization, such as the use of CsTreat powder in a precoat filtration system, are discussed.