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Texas A&M welcomes uranium conversion research
The Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) has signed a research agreement with Quantum Leap Energy (QLE) “to advance and de-risk the commercial production of high-purity uranium hexafluoride (UF6).”
QLE is an Austin, Texas–based subsidiary of ASP Isotopes (ASPI), which is developing an isotope enrichment platform for applications in nuclear energy, nuclear medicine, and semiconductors. QLE specializes in the uranium conversion step of the nuclear fuel cycle—the conversion of yellowcake uranium concentrate (U3O8) into UF6 prior to enrichment.
Kazuki Kuwagaki, Jun Nishiyama, Toru Obara
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 194 | Number 5 | May 2020 | Pages 405-413
Technical Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2019.1706322
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The purpose of this technical note is to evaluate the discharged fuel of breed-and-burn (B&B) reactors. The discharged burnup in a B&B core can be high, and there is a concern that as decay heat increases, handling after a shutdown might be difficult. Because discharged fuels contain a number of plutonium nuclides, the potential for proliferation is also a concern. Moreover, radiotoxicity levels are an issue for geological disposal. As reference cores, two stationary wave reactor (SWR) cores proposed in our previous studies were used. The SWR is a special type of B&B reactor. Discharged fuels of the two SWR cores were evaluated by comparing them to a pressurized water reactor (PWR) and a fast breeder reactor. The discharged fuels of both SWR cores were not significantly worse than the reference PWR, even though the burnup was about 2.6 to 7.0 times higher.