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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.
Taylor S. Kimball, Glenn E. Sjoden, Matthew G. Watrous, Corey Hines
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 200 | Number 9 | September 2026 | Pages 2031-2044
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2025.2568257
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty bans all nuclear tests worldwide. As part of treaty compliance, the concentration of radioactive nuclides in the atmosphere is monitored to detect nuclear weapons tests. Radioactive noble gas fission products, specifically radioxenon, can vent into the atmosphere after a nuclear weapons test, even if the test is well contained underground or underwater. Radioxenon thus serves as a signal for nuclear weapons tests. All atmospheric monitoring systems require samples of radioxenon isotopes for detector calibration, quality control, and certification. Here, we present a novel, improved method for creating samples of 133mXe via neutron irradiation of 132Xe in the Washington State University TRIGA reactor. 132Xe neutron absorption results in either 133Xe or 133mXe—thermal neutron absorption results in 133mXe 12% of the time, while fast neutron absorption (above ~1 MeV) results in 133mXe ~50% of the time. To optimize the production of 133mXe via neutron absorption in 132Xe in the thermal TRIGA reactor, spectral tuning using an irradiation chamber is required to maximize the fraction of fast neutrons being absorbed and minimize the number of thermal neutrons interacting with the 132Xe. We used MCNP to tally 132Xe absorptions with the isotopic tally function, flux tallies and neutron attenuation to estimate the number of neutrons reaching the 132Xe through the irradiation chamber, and the adjoint importance function to improve the source strength estimate. Additionally, we performed a heat transfer analysis for safety considerations. It was determined that the use of a 96% enriched 10B boron carbide chamber, placed next to the fuel elements in reactor position D8, increases the 133mXe/133Xe activity ratio from a baseline value of 0.3 to 1.0, a 233% increase. Additionally, it was determined that the alpha heating produced in the boron does not become an unmanageable problem in the Washington State University reactor.