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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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DOE issues new NEPA rule and procedures—and accelerates DOME reactor testing
Meeting a deadline set in President Trump’s May 23 executive order “Reforming Nuclear Reactor Testing at the Department of Energy,” the DOE on June 30 updated information on its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rulemaking and implementation procedures and published on its website an interim final rule that rescinds existing regulations alongside new implementing procedures.
Braden Goddard, Aaron Totemeier
Nuclear Technology | Volume 209 | Number 5 | May 2023 | Pages 696-706
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2022.2145836
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The United States and the Russian Federation have agreed to dispose of their excess weapons-grade plutonium, with consuming the material as nuclear fuel in light water reactors for electricity generation often discussed as the best option. Lightbridge Corporation has several thermal reactor fuel designs that offer very high burnups, in the range of 21 at. % or approximately 190 900 MWd/tonne of heavy metal, which make them well suited for consuming excess weapons-grade plutonium. MCNP6.2 computer simulations were performed to quantify the mass of plutonium consumed in a Lightbridge-designed fuel rod compared to traditional mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, as well as the attractiveness of the plutonium in the used fuel for weapons purposes. The results of these simulations show that the Lightbridge plutonium disposition fuel variant consumes approximately 5.5 times more plutonium per fuel rod than MOX fuel and that the material attractiveness of the Lightbridge-used plutonium is noticeably less than that of MOX fuel.