Author : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Energy Development and Applications
Publisher :
Page : 1968 pages
File Size : 41,18 MB
Release : 1985
Category : Nuclear engineering
ISBN :
Author : Russian Academy of Sciences
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 126 pages
File Size : 32,25 MB
Release : 2012-03-24
Category : Science
ISBN : 0309253209
Highly enriched uranium (HEU) is used for two major civilian purposes: as fuel for research reactors and as targets for medical isotope production. This material can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Stolen or diverted HEU can be used-in conjunction with some knowledge of physics-to build nuclear explosive devices. Thus, the continued civilian use of HEU is of concern particularly because this material may not be uniformly well-protected. To address these concerns, the National Research Council (NRC) of the U.S. National Academies and the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) held a joint symposium on June 8-10, 2011. Progress, Challenges, and Opportunities for Converting U.S. and Russian Research Reactors summarizes the proceedings of this joint symposium. This report addresses: (1) recent progress on conversion of research reactors, with a focus on U.S.- and R.F.-origin reactors; (2) lessons learned for overcoming conversion challenges, increasing the effectiveness of research reactor use, and enabling new reactor missions; (3) future research reactor conversion plans, challenges, and opportunities; and (4) actions that could be taken by U.S. and Russian organizations to promote conversion. The agenda for the symposium is provided in Appendix A, biographical sketches of the committee members are provided in Appendix B, and the report concludes with the statement of task in Appendix C.
Author : National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 205 pages
File Size : 39,93 MB
Release : 2016-02-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 0309379210
The continued presence of highly enriched uranium (HEU) in civilian installations such as research reactors poses a threat to national and international security. Minimization, and ultimately elimination, of HEU in civilian research reactors worldwide has been a goal of U.S. policy and programs since 1978. Today, 74 civilian research reactors around the world, including 8 in the United States, use or are planning to use HEU fuel. Since the last National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report on this topic in 2009, 28 reactors have been either shut down or converted from HEU to low enriched uranium fuel. Despite this progress, the large number of remaining HEU-fueled reactors demonstrates that an HEU minimization program continues to be needed on a worldwide scale. Reducing the Use of Highly Enriched Uranium in Civilian Research Reactors assesses the status of and progress toward eliminating the worldwide use of HEU fuel in civilian research and test reactors.
Author : United States. Congress. House. Committee on Science and Technology. Subcommittee on Energy Development and Applications
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 33,75 MB
Release : 1985
Category : Nuclear engineering
ISBN :
Author : National Research Council
Publisher : National Academies Press
Page : 220 pages
File Size : 30,1 MB
Release : 2009-06-27
Category : Medical
ISBN : 0309130395
This book is the product of a congressionally mandated study to examine the feasibility of eliminating the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU2) in reactor fuel, reactor targets, and medical isotope production facilities. The book focuses primarily on the use of HEU for the production of the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), whose decay product, technetium-99m3 (Tc-99m), is used in the majority of medical diagnostic imaging procedures in the United States, and secondarily on the use of HEU for research and test reactor fuel. The supply of Mo-99 in the U.S. is likely to be unreliable until newer production sources come online. The reliability of the current supply system is an important medical isotope concern; this book concludes that achieving a cost difference of less than 10 percent in facilities that will need to convert from HEU- to LEU-based Mo-99 production is much less important than is reliability of supply.
Author : International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher : International Atomic Energy Agency
Page : 108 pages
File Size : 16,49 MB
Release : 2014
Category : Science
ISBN : 9789201450104
This publication is a comprehensive study that reviews the current situation in a great number of applications of research reactors. It revises the contents of IAEA TECDOC-1234, The Applications of Research Reactors, giving detailed updates on each field of research reactor uses worldwide. Reactors of all sizes and capabilities can benefit from the sharing of current practices and research enabled via this updated version, which describes the requirements for practicing methods as diverse as neutron activation analysis, education and training, neutron scattering and neutron imaging, silicon doping and radioisotope production, material/fuel irradiation and testing, and some others. Many underutilised research reactors can learn how to diversify their technical capabilities, staff and potential commercial partners and users seeking research reactor services and products. The content of the publication has also been strengthened in terms of current issues facing the vast majority of research reactors by including sections describing user and customer relations as well as strategic planning considerations.
Author : International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher :
Page : 73 pages
File Size : 18,43 MB
Release : 2009
Category : History
ISBN : 9789201043092
The conversion of research and test reactors from the use of fuel containing highly enriched uranium (HEU) to fuel that employs low-enriched uranium (LEU) has become an important issue in many Member States. The IAEA has supported several projects and activities assisting in the reduction of the use of HEU. However, no comprehensive publication addressing the rationale of qualification of these fuels had yet been available. Developed in order to meet this need, the present publication provides good practices and points of reference for the type, quality and completeness of the information to be generated in order to ensure acceptable performance of high density LEU fuels to be used in research reactors. Furthermore, it elaborates on the development and qualification of high density fuels of the type used in most research and test reactors and assesses the different approaches to the qualification process.
Author : Benjamin Rickman
Publisher :
Page : 40 pages
File Size : 34,79 MB
Release : 2015
Category :
ISBN :
In accordance with the 1986 amendment concerning licenses for research and test reactors, the MU Research Reactor (MURR) is planning to convert from using High-Enriched Uranium (HEU) fuel to the use of Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) fuel. Since the approval of a new LEU fuel that could meet the MURR's per- formance demands, the next phase of action for the fuel conversion process is to create a new Safety Analysis Report (SAR) with respect to the LEU fuel. A component of the SAR includes the Maximum Hypothetical Accident (MHA) and accidents that qualify under the class of Fuel Handling Accidents (FHA). In this work, the dose to occupational staat the MURR is calculated for the FHAs. The radionuclide inventory for the proposed LEU fuel was calculated using the ORIGEN2 point-depletion code linked to the MURR neutron spectrum. The MURR spectrum was generated from a Monte Carlo Neutron transPort (MCNP) simulation. The coupling of these codes create MONTEBURNS, a time-dependent burnup code. The release fraction from each FHA within this analysis was estab- lished by the methodology of the 2006 HEU SAR, which was accepted by the NRC. The actual dose methodology was not recorded in the HEU SAR, so a conservative path was chosen. In compliance to NUREG 1537, when new methodology is used in a HEU to LEU analysis, it is necessary to re-evaluate the HEU accident. The Total Eective Dose Equivalent (TEDE) values were calculated in addi- tion to the whole body dose and thyroid dose to operation personnel. The LEU FHA occupational TEDE dose was 349 mrem which is under the NRC regula- tory occupational dose limit of 5 rem TEDE, and under the LEU MHA limit of 403 mrem. The re-evaluated HEU FHA occupational TEDE dose was 235 mrem,which is above the HEU MHA TEDE dose of 132 mrem. Since the new method- ology produces a dose that is larger than the HEU MHA, we can safely assume that it is more conservative than the previous, unspecied dose.
Author : Peter von der Hardt
Publisher : Springer
Page : 446 pages
File Size : 25,21 MB
Release : 1986-03-31
Category : Science
ISBN :
Proceedings of an International Meeting, Petten, The Netherlands, October 14-16, 1985
Author :
Publisher :
Page : pages
File Size : 37,97 MB
Release : 2012
Category :
ISBN :
The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR), located in the ATR Complex of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), was constructed in the 1960s for the purpose of irradiating reactor fuels and materials. Other irradiation services, such as radioisotope production, are also performed at ATR. The ATR is fueled with high-enriched uranium (HEU) matrix (UAlx) in an aluminum sandwich plate cladding. The National Nuclear Security Administration Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) strategic mission includes efforts to reduce and protect vulnerable nuclear and radiological material at civilian sites around the world. Converting research reactors from using HEU to low-enriched uranium (LEU) was originally started in 1978 as the Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR) Program under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science. Within this strategic mission, GTRI has three goals that provide a comprehensive approach to achieving this mission: The first goal, the driver for the modification that is the subject of this determination, is to convert research reactors from using HEU to LEU. Thus the mission of the ATR LEU Fuel Conversion Project is to convert the ATR and Advanced Test Reactor Critical facility (ATRC) (two of the six U.S. High-Performance Research Reactors [HPRR]) to LEU fuel by 2017. The major modification criteria evaluation of the project pre-conceptual design identified several issues that lead to the conclusion that the project is a major modification.
