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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.
C. O. Slater, F. J. Muckenthaler, D. T. Ingersoll
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 97 | Number 2 | October 1987 | Pages 123-144
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE87-A27460
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The analysis of an Oak Ridge National Laboratory Tower Shielding Facility (TSF) experiment in which measurements were made of neutrons streaming through a mockup of a section of the lower core support structure of a large-scale high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) design concept is described. The analysis was performed with the same calculational methods used for an analysis of the HTGR design itself, the purpose of the experiment being to provide data against which the validity of the calculational methods could be tested. Also summarized are the HTGR design calculation results; how they affected the design and objectives of the TSF experiment is described. Comparisons of the neutron detector responses observed in the experiment with calculated responses showed satisfactory agreement in most cases, and the implications of these results for the HTGR shield design are highlighted. Among other conclusions, it was determined that 1. the calculational methods are adequate 2. neutron streaming through the HTGR core support structure is predicted reasonably well 3. thermal neutron fluence levels at the HTGR lower plenum side wall are probably overestimated by at most a factor of 2.3.