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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.
Linda D. Vickers
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 145 | Number 3 | November 2003 | Pages 354-375
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE03-A2388
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This paper provides the radiation absorbed dose rates (rad-h-1) to a tissue-equivalent torus ring at 1 meter from radioactive spallation products in Ta, W, Pb, Bi, and LBE target materials used in Accelerator Transmutation of Waste (ATW) applications. No previous works have provided an estimate of the absorbed dose rates (rad-h-1) to tissue from activated targets for ATW applications. In addition, this paper provides the characterization of target materials of high-energy particle accelerators for the parameters of (a) spallation neutron yield (neutrons/proton), (b) spallation products yield (nuclides/proton), (c) energy-dependent spallation neutron fluence distribution (n-cm-2 MeV-1), and (d) identification of the optimal target dimensions to yield the maximum radial spallation neutron leakage from the target. A beneficial characteristic of these target materials (Ta, W, Pb, Bi, and LBE) is they do not produce radioactive transuranic isotopes, which have very long half-lives and require special handling and disposition controls. In addition, these activated, spent targets are not considered high-level radioactive waste for disposal purposes such as spent fuel from a nuclear power reactor.