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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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World Bank, IAEA partner to fund nuclear energy
The World Bank and the International Atomic Energy Agency signed an agreement last week to cooperate on the construction and financing of advanced nuclear projects in developing countries, marking the first partnership since the bank ended its ban on funding for nuclear energy projects.
Masatoshi Yamasaki, Hironobu Unesaki, Akio Yamamoto, Toshikazu Takeda, Masaaki Mori
Nuclear Technology | Volume 180 | Number 1 | October 2012 | Pages 18-27
Technical Paper | Fuel Cycle and Management | doi.org/10.13182/NT12-A14516
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The use of highly-enriched fuels is an effective method for reducing the number of spent fuel assemblies and improving fuel cycle economics, e.g., with >5 wt% 235U. However, from a criticality safety point of view, such high enrichment levels require a significant investment for the considerable modification of most facilities and equipment. Erbia-credit super-high-burnup fuel offers an effective solution that can solve the problem: Small amounts of erbia added to the entire amount of UO2 powder can reduce the reactivity level to less than that observed at a 5 wt% enrichment level, thus eliminating the need for the modifications mentioned above. A series of criticality safety analyses has been performed to determine the minimum and sufficient content of erbia that can guarantee a suitable erbia credit. As a noteworthy result, the erbia content required was determined for corresponding values of uranium enrichment in a range >5 wt%, as indicated in our ECOS (Erbia COntent for Sub-criticality judgment) diagram. This paper outlines a series of criticality safety analyses and explains how the minimum erbia content can be determined to ensure subcriticality for a >5 wt% enrichment fuel to ensure that the fuel obtained is equivalent to that whose enrichment is <5 wt%.