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The busyness of the nuclear fuel supply chain
Ken Petersenpresident@ans.org
With all that is happening in the industry these days, the nuclear fuel supply chain is still a hot topic. The Russian assault in Ukraine continues to upend the “where” and “how” of attaining nuclear fuel—and it has also motivated U.S. legislators to act.
Two years into the Russian war with Ukraine, things are different. The Inflation Reduction Act was passed in 2022, authorizing $700 million in funding to support production of high-assay low-enriched uranium in the United States. Meanwhile, the Department of Energy this January issued a $500 million request for proposals to stimulate new HALEU production. The Emergency National Security Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2024 includes $2.7 billion in funding for new uranium enrichment production. This funding was diverted from the Civil Nuclear Credits program and will only be released if there is a ban on importing Russian uranium into the United States—which could happen by the time this column is published, as legislation that bans Russian uranium has passed the House as of this writing and is headed for the Senate. Also being considered is legislation that would sanction Russian uranium. Alternatively, the Biden-Harris administration may choose to ban Russian uranium without legislation in order to obtain access to the $2.7 billion in funding.
Katsuhei Kobayashi, Shuji Yamamoto, Samyol Lee, Hyun-Je Cho, Hajimu Yamana, Hirotake Moriyama, Yoshiaki Fujita, Toshiaki Mitsugashira
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 139 | Number 3 | November 2001 | Pages 273-281
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE01-A2237
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Use is made of a back-to-back type of double fission chamber and an electron linear accelerator-driven lead slowing-down spectrometer to measure the neutron-induced fission cross sections of 229Th and 231Pa below 10 keV relative to that of 235U. A measurement relative to the 10B(n, ) reaction is also made using a BF3 counter at energies below 1 keV and normalized to the absolute value obtained by using the cross section of the 235U(n,f) reaction between 200 eV and 1 keV.The experimental data of the 229Th(n,f) reaction, which was measured by Konakhovich et al., show higher cross-section values, especially at energies of 0.1 to 0.4 eV. The data by Gokhberg et al. seem to be lower than the current measurement above 6 keV. Although the evaluated data in JENDL-3.2 are in general agreement with the measurement, the evaluation is higher from 0.25 to 5 eV and lower above 10 eV. The ENDF/B-VI data evaluated above 10 eV are also lower. The current thermal neutron-induced fission cross section at 0.0253 eV is 32.4 ± 10.7 b, which is in good agreement with results of Gindler et al., Mughabghab, and JENDL-3.2.The mean value of the 231Pa(n,f) cross sections between 0.37 and 0.52 eV, which were measured by Leonard and Odegaarden, is close to the current measurement. The evaluated data in ENDF/B-VI are lower below 0.15 eV and higher above ~30 eV. The ENDF/B-VI and the JEF-2.2 are extremely higher above 1 keV. The JENDL-3.2 data are in general agreement with the measurement, although they are lower above ~100 eV.