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NRC approves TerraPower construction permit
Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that it has approved TerraPower’s construction permit application for Kemmerer Unit 1, the company’s first deployment of Natrium, its flagship sodium fast reactor.
This approval is a significant milestone on three fronts. For TerraPower, it represents another step forward in demonstrating its technology. For the Department of Energy, it reflects progress (despite delays) for the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP). For the NRC, it is the first approval granted to a commercial reactor in nearly a decade—and the first approval of a commercial non–light water reactor in more than 40 years.
Gerhard J. Schlosser, Wolf-Dieter Krebs, Peter Urban
Nuclear Technology | Volume 102 | Number 1 | April 1993 | Pages 54-67
Technical Paper | Mixed-Oxide Fuel / Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT93-A34802
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Germany has adopted the strategy of a closed fuel cycle using reprocessing and recycling. The central issue today is plutonium recycling by the use of U-Pu mixed-oxide (MOX) in pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs). The design of MOX fuel assemblies and fuel management in MOX-containing cores are strongly influenced by the nuclear properties of the plutonium isotopes. Optimized MOX fuel assembly designs for PWRs currently use up to three types of MOX fuel rods having different plutonium contents with natural uranium or uranium tailings as carrier material but without burnable absorbers. The MOX fuel assembly designs for BWRs use four to six rod types with different plutonium contents and Gd2O3/UO2 burnable absorber rods. Both the PWR and the BWR designs attain good burnup equivalence and compatibility with uranium fuel assemblies. High flexibility exists in the loading schemes relative to the position and number of MOX fuel assemblies in the reloads and in the core as a whole. The Siemens experience with MOX fuel assemblies is based on the insertion of 318 MOX fuel assemblies in eight PWRs and 168 in BWRs and pressurized heavy water reactors so far. The primary operating results include information on the cycle length, power distribution, reactivity coefficients, and control rod worth of cores containing MOX fuel assemblies. Normal levels of reliability and safety can be maintained during reactor operation even with higher MOX fuel fractions, fissile contents, and burnup.