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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.
G. J. Ehrhardt, S. Symes, R. K. Guimon, K. R. Zinn
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 110 | Number 4 | April 1992 | Pages 369-373
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE92-A23910
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Several radioisotope generator systems exist in which the carrier-free daughter product would precipitate if present in macro amounts at pH levels at which the parent is soluble. Included among these are the 68Ge/68Ga, 90Sr/90Y, and 47Ca/47Sc pairs. In these systems, chemical separation can be achieved by Fajans adsorption of the radiocolloidal daughter products onto surfaces such as activated glass microspheres at an appropriate pH, followed by washing to remove the parent solution and desorption of the daughter crop by acid washes. Investigation of the Ge/Ga and Sr/Y systems demonstrated that this solid-phase extraction method is erratic, but can give daughter yields as high as 89% with separation factors up to ∼10000 from parent isotope. This method has the potential for producing daughter isotopes with a minimum of metal and organic impurities for labeling cells, receptor binding ligands, and antibodies for diagnostic and radiotherapeutic purposes.