Medical Isotope Production Without Highly Enriched Uranium (2009) / Chapter Skim
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11 Progress in Eliminating HEU Use
11 Progress in Eliminating HEU Use
Pages 142-162
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From page 142... ...
They underpin the development of power and propulsion reactors and are major research tools in the fields of nuclear physics and engineering, nuclear chemistry, materials science, and biology, and they contribute to scientific and technological advances in medicine, industry, and agriculture. Research reactors have become indispensable for the production of medical isotopes to supply a rapidly increasing demand The amount of HEU in storage or use in declared Nuclear Weapon States for defense and naval propulsion purposes dwarfs the amount of HEU that is currently being used for civilian research reactor fuel and targets.
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From page 143... ...
Since 1975, significantly more research and test reactors have shut down each year than have started up. Of the 240 operating research reactors, 203 are or were fueled with HEU.
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From page 144... ...
144 MEDICAL ISOTOPE PRODUCTION WITHOUT HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM TABLE 11.1 Country List of Research and Test Reactors as of December 2008 HEU-Fueled Reactors Identified Reactors Worldwide for Conversion by the GTRI Decommis-sioned Shutdown before Fully converted Not converted construction Operational conversion Country Shutdown converted Partially Planned Under Total Albania Algeria 2 Argentina 5 2 2 2 0 Australia 1 2 1 1 1 Austria 1 2 2 1 1 Bangladesh 1 Belarus 1 Belgium 4 2 1 1 Brazil 4 1 1 Bulgaria 1 1 1 Canada 8 2a 1b 5 3 6 3 3 Chile 1 1 2 1 1 China 14 2 2 8 2 1 5 Colombia 1 1 1 Cuba Czech Republic 3 2 2 1 1 Democratic 1 P.R. of Korea Democratic 1 1 Rep.
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From page 145... ...
PROGRESS IN ELIMINATING HEU USE 145 TABLE 11.1 Continued HEU-Fueled Reactors Identified Reactors Worldwide for Conversion by the GTRI Decommis-sioned Shutdown before Fully converted Not converted construction Operational conversion Country Shutdown converted Partially Planned Under Total France 12 1 14 5 7 1 1 5 Georgia 1 Germany 12 11 23 5 2 2 1 Ghana 1 1 1 Greece 2 1 1 1 Hungary 2 1 1 1 India 5 1 4 1 1 Indonesia 3 1 Iran, Islamic 5 2 1 1 Republic of Iraq 2 Israel 2 1 1 Italy 4 5 5 1 1 Jamaica 1 1 1 Japan 13 7 3 7 2 5 Jordan Kazakhstan 3 4 4 Korea, 2 2 1 1 Republic of Latvia 2 Libyan Arab 1 2 2 Jamahiriya Madagascar Malaysia 1 Mexico 3 1 1 1 Morocco 1 Myanmar continued
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From page 146... ...
146 MEDICAL ISOTOPE PRODUCTION WITHOUT HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM TABLE 11.1 Continued HEU-Fueled Reactors Identified Reactors Worldwide for Conversion by the GTRI Decommis-sioned Shutdown before Fully converted Not converted construction Operational conversion Country Shutdown converted Partially Planned Under Total Netherlands 3 2 3 2 1 Nigeria 1 1 1 Norway 2 Pakistan 2 2 1 1 Peru 2 Philippines 1 1 1 Poland 1 2 2 1 1 Portugal 1 1 1 Romania 2 1 1 1 1 Russian 49 1 36 11 12 12 Federation Saudi Arabia Serbia 1 1 Serbia and Montenegro Slovakia Slovenia 1 1 1 South Africa 1 1 1 Spain 1 3 Sri Lanka Sweden 3 1 2 2 Switzerland 3 2 1 2 1 1 Syrian Arab 1 1 1 Republic Taiwan 1 1 3 2 1 1 Thailand 1 1 Tunisia 1
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From page 147... ...
. At about that time the somewhat arbitrary definition of HEU as uranium enriched in The objectives of this program are to reduce and eventually eliminate all commerce in HEU for research and test reactors by developing, testing, and qualifying higher density fuels and targets as well as the conversion procedures to allow reactors to operate safely and efficiently on LEU with a minimal loss in reactor performance.
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From page 148... ...
became a full partner in RERTR in 1993. The progress that DOE and others have made to eliminate the use of HEU in research reactors is largely a result of the RERTR program and falls neatly into two major periods: 1978–2004, when RERTR and associated spent fuel return programs had modest resources and progress was relatively slow; and 2004–present, when RERTR and associated fuel return programs became part of the GTRI. RERTR PROGRESS: 1978–2004 The RERTR program has been focused on conversion of HEU research reactor fuel as well as conversion of HEU targets that are used to produce medical isotopes, because both fuel and targets contain direct-use material. The progress made by the RERTR program during this period is described below.
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From page 149... ...
Other than the altruism of complying with RERTR principles, the return of a research reactor's HEU spent fuel to safe and secure facilities in the United States and Russia is the only tangible incentive for a reactor to convert to LEU. Over the 26-year initial period of the RERTR program, only 38 U.S.d esigned research and test reactors were converted from HEU fuel to LEU fuel, and not a single Russian-designed reactor was converted.
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From page 150... ...
ANL provided technical leadership for the development of high-density LEU fuels working in collaboration with the international community of fuel developers for research reactors. The program successfully developed and qualified LEU silicide fuels.
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From page 151... ...
Targets for Isotope Production RERTR target conversion efforts were focused primarily on targets used to produce medical isotopes. As was the case for reactor fuel, it was recognized that conversion required the development of new target designs to accommodate the required five-fold increase in the amount of LEU to contain the same amount of fissionable U-235 as HEU (see Chapter 7)
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From page 152... ...
During the analysis concerning recommencement of the recovery of spent fuel by the RERTR program, part of the final Environmental Impact Statement issued by DOE stated:13 A key goal of United States' nuclear weapons nonproliferation policy is to reduce international civil commerce in HEU, since HEU can be used directly in the production of nuclear weapons. IAEA's director general also announced that agency's position on HEU elimination during this period:14 The countries involved should join forces to step up their efforts towards minimizing and eventually eliminating the civilian use of HEU.
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From page 153... ...
During this second period, the RERTR program received increased funding, increased visibility, and much more direct involvement by senior DOE-NNSA leadership resulting in accelerated progress. Increased funding led to acceleration in reactor conversion, fuel development, and a major new effort to promote the development of an LEU fuel fabrication facility.
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From page 154... ...
These 78 reactors are not targeted for conversion under the GTRI and are in fact considered to be out-of-scope of that initiative. DOE-NNSA maintains a substantial and fluid list of these reactors.15 HEU will continue to be transported to these out-of-scope reactors until they are eventually shut down, and also to the nuclear navies of the world, most of whose propulsion reactors are HEU fueled.16 As a consequence, the original RERTR mission has been effectively modified from the goal to eliminate commerce in HEU for research reactors to a lesser goal of minimization.
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From page 155... ...
By 2004, hopes for the rapid qualification of such fuels had been severely dampened by failures of U-Mo dispersions in both plate and tube geometries in research reactors in Belgium, France, and Russia. These failures were all traced to the development of unstable interaction layers between the U-Mo fuel particles and the Al matrix, which caused swelling and decohesion of the fuel "meat" (Figure 11.2)
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From page 156... ...
11.3 of a second generation of U-Mo dispersion fuel having densities of about 8.5 g U/cm3 will be viable over the next 2 to 3 years. ANL has been joined by INL as lead technical laboratory on new fuel development, and investigations have been initiated with the research reactor fuel development community worldwide.
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From page 157... ...
The United States will provide fuel performance data and fuel design support required to complete this effort. The monolithic fuel qualification effort is primarily focused on supplying fuel for the U.S.
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From page 158... ...
19 An additional 155 kilograms of HEU research reactor fuel was returned to Russia from Hungary in October 2008. 20 The results were presented by Jeff Chamberlin, Nuclear Removal Coordinator for the National Nuclear Security Administration, at the 2008 INMM Annual Conference in July 2008.
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From page 159... ...
, is close to LEU conversion using the foil 21 Nikolay Arkhangelsky (Rosatom, Russia) , one of the world's foremost research reactor experts, asserted in a November 2008 presentation that a limited number of very high power research reactors fueled with HEU may be required in the future to obtain sufficient neutron fluxes for some applied scientific experiments.
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From page 160... ...
Finally, the committee notes that little or no progress has been made by the GTRI in minimizing the HEU waste resulting from medical isotope production. This waste is accumulating at producers' sites or at regional storage facilities (see Chapter 3)
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From page 161... ...
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The third charge of the statement of task calls for an assessment of the progress that is being made by DOE and others to eliminate all use of HEU in reactor fuel, reactor targets, and medical isotope production facilities. The committee has developed the following findings and recommendations to address this task: 1.
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From page 162... ...
2. Minimization of the commerce in civilian HEU and its use in research reactors worldwide, together with the return of research reactor spent nuclear fuel and HEU waste from isotope production to safe and s ecure facilities in their countries of origin, will help to reduce proliferation risks.
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