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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.
Luka Snoj, Ivan Kodeli, Igor Remec
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 178 | Number 4 | December 2014 | Pages 496-508
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE14-30
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A complete evaluation of the experimental uncertainties of the KRITZ-2 series of critical and relative fission rate experiments was performed within the International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation Project. The uncertainties in the benchmark model keff are mainly due to uranium enrichment, plutonium content [mixed oxide (MOX) fuel], pitch, and boron isotopic composition. The largest contribution to the uncertainty in the benchmark model keff is from the uncertainty in the bias due to the homogenization of the particulate MOX fuel. In addition, uncertainties due to nuclear data libraries are presented. The keff's calculated with various nuclear data libraries systematically underpredict the benchmark model keff by one to three times the standard experimental uncertainties. When taking into account uncertainties in nuclear data estimated using SCALE-6.0 and JENDL-4.0m covariances, the benchmark and calculated keff's agree within 1σ of the total—experimental plus calculational—uncertainties. In contrast to the criticality benchmark data, the calculated relative fission rates agree very well with the experimental ones, especially when eliminating systematic errors due to normalization.