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Fluor to serve as EPC contractor for Centrus’s Piketon plant expansion
The HALEU cascade at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. (Photo: Centrus Energy)
American Centrifuge Operating, a subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corp., has formed a multiyear strategic collaboration with Fluor Corporation in which Fluor will serve as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for Centrus’s expansion of its uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. Fluor will lead the engineering and design aspects of the American Centrifuge Plant’s expansion, manage the supply chain and procurement of key materials and services, oversee construction at the site, and support the commissioning of new capacity.
Antonino Romano, Pavel Hejzlar, Neil E. Todreas
Nuclear Technology | Volume 147 | Number 3 | September 2004 | Pages 368-387
Technical Paper | Medium-Power Lead-Alloy Reactors | doi.org/10.13182/NT04-1
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Fertile-free fast lead-cooled modular reactors are proposed as efficient incinerators of plutonium and minor actinides (MAs) for application to advanced fuel cycles devoted to transmutation. Two concepts are presented: (1) an actinide burner reactor, designed to incinerate mostly plutonium and some MAs, and (2) a minor actinide burner reactor, devoted to burning mostly minor actinides and some plutonium. These transuranics are loaded in a fertile-free Zr-based metallic fuel to maximize the incineration rate. Both designs feature streaming fuel assemblies that enhance neutron leakage to achieve favorable neutronic feedback and a double-entry control rod system that reduces reactivity perturbations during seismic events and flattens the axial power profile. A detailed neutronic analysis shows that both designs have favorable neutronic characteristics and reactivity feedback mechanisms that yield passive safety features comparable to those of the Integral Fast Reactor. A safety analysis presents the response of the burners to anticipated transients without scram on the basis of (1) the integral parameter approach and (2) simulations of thermal-hydraulic accident scenario conditions. It is shown that both designs have large thermal margins that lead to safe shutdown without structural damage to the core components for a large spectrum of unprotected transients. Furthermore, the actinide destruction rates are comparable to those of the accelerator transmutation of waste concept, and a fuel cycle cost analysis shows the potential for economical accomplishment of the transmutation mission compared to other proposed actinide-burning options.