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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.
P.C. Kalambokas, A. F. Henry
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 61 | Number 2 | October 1976 | Pages 181-194
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE76-A27351
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A general relationship between two-group fluxes and normal currents on the surface of a core surrounded by a homogeneous reflector is derived. The relationship is an integral one derived directly from the group diffusion equations for the homogeneous reflector material and hence depending only on group parameters associated with the reflector material. Approximate homogeneous, algebraic boundary conditions relating group fluxes to group currents at the core-reflector interface are then derived, and these are applied to three sizes of pressurized water reactors (PWRs). Application to a large PWR at the interface between core shroud and reflector yields particularly excellent results for criticality and flux shapes in the core. The savings in computer running time over that required if the reflector is accounted for explicitly is ∼40%.