Advanced Neutron Source Enrichment Study

A study has been performed of the impact on performance of using low-enriched uranium (20% ²³⁵U) or medium-enriched uranium (35 % ²³⁵U) as an alternative fuel for the Advanced Neutron Source, which was initially designed to use uranium enriched to 93% ²³⁵U. Higher fuel densities and larger volume cores were evaluated at the lower enrichments in terms of impact on neutron flux, safety, safeguards, technical feasibility, and cost. The feasibility of fabricating uranium silicide fuel at increasing material density was specifically addressed by a panel of international experts on research reactor fuels. The most viable alternative designs for the reactor at lower enrichments were identified and discussed. Several sensitivity analyses were performed to gain an understanding of the performance of the reactor at parametric values of power, fuel density, core volume, and enrichment that were interpolations between the boundary values imposed on the study or extrapolations from known technology.