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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.
S. R. Bierman, B. M. Durst, E. D. Clayton
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 65 | Number 1 | January 1978 | Pages 41-48
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE78-A27124
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
There is a continuing interest in the use of fixed neutron absorbers (poisons) for criticality control, since their use would permit safely handling larger quantities of nuclear materials with reduced probability of criticality. The effectiveness of such absorbers as neutron poisons depends on self-shielding effects, which in turn are determined by the magnitude of the absorption cross sections and their variation with energy, the thickness of material, and the neutron energy spectrum. Criticality experiments were performed to obtain data on the reactivity worths of several thicknesses of the following materials in two different neutron energy spectra: Boral Cadmium Type 304-L stainless steel containing 1.6 wt% boron Type 304-L stainless steel containing 1.1 wt% boron Type 304-L stainless steel Uranium depleted to 0.2 wt% 235U Lead. The measurement data reported are limited to a single region of a given absorber material in each critical assembly. Combinations of absorber materials or multiregions were not investigated; however, material thicknesses were varied from 0 to ∼60 mm. The data are presented as sets of clean, well-defined, poisoned critical assemblies that can be used to check calculational techniques and cross-section data in two different neutron energy spectra. The materials are listed above in the order of their measured relative worth as fixed poisons in either neutron energy spectrum.