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2026 Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
August 24–27, 2026
Dallas, TX|Hilton Anatole
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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.
C. B. Mills
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 13 | Number 4 | August 1962 | Pages 301-305
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE62-A26172
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The complete spatial separation of moderator and uranium fuel bearing regions are shown by experiment to result in critical reactors with low critical mass and relatively uniform fissioning density. Studies of several of these experiments to establish the accuracy of a numerical method of calculation (SNG) for this class of problems show good correspondence between theory and experiment. This method is then used for a useful survey of critical mass and U235 atomic density as a function of geometry for the best moderators, D2O and Be.