Nuclear Power Related Media Thread, page-125

Centrus will provide some of the first HALEU, but if the US wants to be competitive with China, Russia and France? then they will need something better than just another centrifuge technology, Laser enrichment would be far a better and more economical than any centrifuge tech surely?


https://www.oakridger.com/news/2020...ing-us-nuclear-innovation-starts-in-tennessee

Guest Column: Fueling US nuclear innovation starts in Tennessee


By Rita Barnwell/Guest Collumn
Posted Jul 23, 2020 at 7:26 PM

Imagine a car that’s just simply better than the rest.
Imagine a car that’s just simply better than the rest.
It’s extremely efficient, comes packed with technology and allows you to go farther than any other vehicle on the road on just a fraction of fuel. It even comes with standard safety features that can prevent accidents before they happen.
Interested?
Now, instead of a car, imagine a new nuclear reactor — one that is smaller, more affordable and highly flexible.
More than 20 U.S. companies are working on these types of advanced reactor designs that could help us meet our future clean energy needs. Some of them could even be online within the next five years.
The problem is that many of these new reactors will require a fuel that does not commercially exist — essentially keeping our best cars in the garage.
The industry refers to this fuel as high-assay, low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, and these companies can’t innovate without it.
Our current fleet of reactors run on fuel that is enriched up to 5% with uranium-235 — the main fissile isotope that produces energy during a chain reaction.
HALEU is enriched between 5% and 20% and is required by many new reactor designs to get more power per unit of volume. This allows for smaller plant sizes, longer core life, and better fuel utilization.
Our current fleet of reactors is providing an incredible service to this country. Nuclear generates about 20% of America’s electricity and 55% of its clean power.
But the fleet is facing challenging market conditions. As a result, a number of these reactors are expected to shut down prematurely over the next two decades, leaving a huge hole in our grid for clean, reliable, and resilient power.
The Department of Energy and the Trump Administration firmly believe these new reactors could be game-changers and are a key component of our new strategy to restore global American leadership in nuclear energy.

These new designs will do more than power millions of homes with clean and affordable electricity. The heat they generate can be used to help decarbonize other energy-intensive industries to develop fuels for cars, plastics for industry and even clean water for communities in distressed areas.
The industry estimates it will need nearly 600 metric tonnes of HALEU to bring these new reactors to market by 2030.
That doesn’t give us much time, and it’s why DOE is making it a priority to establish new pathways for these companies to access this fuel—another action highlighted in the Administration’s Nuclear Fuel Working Group report.
We partnered with Centrus Energy last year to demonstrate 16 advanced centrifuge machines at an enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. Centrus is U.S.-owned and has the only U.S.-origin enrichment technology, and these incredible machines have strong roots right here, in Tennessee.

The company’s original AC-100 machine was developed over the years with support from DOE in Oak Ridge and later refined by Centrus to the current AC-100M machine under contract with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The machines will be used to enrich uranium hexafluoride gas to produce up to 600 kilograms of HALEU by June 2022 to support advanced reactor fuel qualification testing and reactor demonstration projects. The technology will then be available for commercial deployment at the conclusion of the demonstration, which is currently on-time and on budget.
We are working with American Centrifuge Operating, a subsidiary of Centrus, based locally in Oak Ridge. Most of the engineering and development work is taking place at the company’s manufacturing facility on Centrifuge Way, including the balancing of all machine rotors. Centrus is also working with a local vendor to produce centrifuge casings and molecular pumps that will be later assembled at the Piketon site starting in November 2020.
This is an aggressive timeline, but the infrastructure and technical expertise of the workers in Oak Ridge will ensure the job is done right and to specification. We are using American-owned suppliers and their technologies for this project and are fortunate to have most of these resources based in the Volunteer State.
By successfully demonstrating the domestic production of HALEU, this Administration is fulfilling yet another promise to help revive, revitalize and expand U.S. nuclear technologies around the world.
At DOE, we are committed to a true all-of-the-above energy strategy, one that uses innovation to develop all of America’s energy sources while reducing emissions and increasing security and prosperity.
We have an outstanding opportunity to do so with this entirely new class of American advanced reactors. I am confident that with Tennessee leading the way, we will succeed in creating an American energy future that is abundant, secure, and clean.
Rita Baranwal is the Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.