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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.
K. Asatani, M. Shiotani, Y. Hattori
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 62 | Number 1 | January 1977 | Pages 9-19
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE77-A26935
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new method based on the singular perturbation theory is presented for synthesizing suboptimal control of nuclear reactors with spatially distributed parameters. The inverse of the neutron velocity is regarded as a small perturbing parameter, and the model, adopted for simplicity, is an infinite slab reactor described by the one-group diffusion equation. A control is found for the problem of transferring a given distributed neutron flux to the desired one assuming the deviation is small. It is shown that the Helmholtz mode is suited for the singular perturbation technique when one carries out the modal expansion, and the mode controllability is then determined in view of the asymptotic stability of solutions, which depends on the criticality condition. The theoretical estimation of the error of solution is also attached. A numerical example is given showing a large saving of computation time in the present method.