BOISE, Idaho: The development of commercial advanced nuclear reactors intended to help combat global warming and enhance national security will require a better supply of the right types of nuclear fuel, US officials said Tuesday.
The US Department of Energy sent a request to companies that may be interested in sending ideas about their plans to establish a program to ensure the availability of high-assayed low-enriched uranium, or HALEU.
The information obtained will be used to prepare a report for Congress. It could ask the Department of Energy to take the next step and ask companies to submit a more detailed plan of how to supply nuclear fuel.
Joe Biden, the chairman of the $1 trillion infrastructure legislation signed last month, includes $2.5 billion to set up a HALEU availability program for the Department of Energy. The goal is to produce sufficient high-assay low-enriched uranium for civilian domestic research and commercial use in the next wave of advanced reactors currently in development.
“Advanced reactors are an incredible asset in our collective fight against climate change,” Dr. Katherine Huff, principal deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Energy’s Office of Atomic Energy, said in a statement. If we do not take proactive steps now to ensure an adequate and diverse supply of HALEU, reactor demonstration and deployment projects, such as projects funded in the bipartisan infrastructure law, can help us slow the effects of climate change. Fuel will not be given on time.
Efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by developing new technologies with nuclear power began during the Obama administration and continued under both the Trump and Biden administrations.
Democratic US Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in a statement, the HALEU Availability Program will “help America maintain our nuclear supply chain, create high-paying manufacturing jobs, and re-establish American leadership internationally. “
About 20% of the country’s energy comes from nuclear power produced only under 100 nuclear power plants. Current reactor fuel, the Department of Energy said, uses up to 5% enriched uranium.
Advanced reactors use HALEU enriched between 5% and 20%, which is needed to produce more power in smaller advanced reactors than in conventional nuclear power reactors.
The Energy Department’s 890-square-mile (2,300-square-kilometer) site in eastern Idaho that includes the Idaho National Laboratory has been at the forefront of efforts to develop advanced nuclear reactors. The lab houses the Advanced Test Reactor, the world’s most powerful test reactor, that produces neutrons to test new materials and fuels to see how they react in high-radiation environments.
The site also includes the Transient Test Reactor, which was reactivated in 2017 after being put on standby in 1994 as interest in nuclear power waned. The reactor was restarted to test nuclear fuel.
The primary obstacles US officials face in reforming nuclear power are making nuclear power plants economically competitive and changing public perception among some that nuclear power is unsafe.
Critics of nuclear power point out that fuel production as well as power plant facilities could be vulnerable to accidents and sabotage, and that nuclear material could be used to make bombs.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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