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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.
R. M. Westfall
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 79 | Number 2 | October 1981 | Pages 237-239
Technical Note | doi.org/10.13182/NSE81-4
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
As part of a standards effort of the American Nuclear Society to establish subcritical mass limits for the transuranium actinides, critical masses were calculated for seven actinide elements in bare, water-reflected, and steel-reflected metal systems. For the nuclides 242Pu and 241Am, values obtained with ENDF/B-V cross-section data were in much better agreement with values inferred from experimental measurement than were initial values calculated with ENDF/B-IV data. A brief description of the analytical methods employed is followed by a presentation of the results.