Well in this instance it appears that UNF is recycled and added to mined Uranium and a new enrichment process is used to make HALEU or what they call LEU+ Uranium.
(Seems to be a very similar operation as to what GEH were planing all of those years ago sing the SILEX process as the enrichment technology my question is did they actually continue with that thinking at Wilmington?
https://neutronbytes.com/2024/02/17/us-nuclear-fuel-progress-is-a-mix-bag-of-milestones/
US Nuclear Fuel Progress is a Mix Bag of Milestones
Posted on February 17, 2024 by djysrv
- GE Verona Gets NRC OK for 8% U235 Fuel Production
- Fuel Fabrication Efforts Show Progress for HALEU
- Cylinder Shortages Delay Centrus HALEU Production
- BWXT Awarded $122 Million for Uranium Downblending Services
- Westinghouse Submits AP300 to for Generic Design Assessment
- Hyundai is EPC Bidder for Bulgaria’s Kozloduy 7 & 8 AP1000s
The growing interest in nuclear power has in turn stimulated significant developments in the fabrication of fuel for advanced designs not yet built and existing plants in operation. Here is roundup to recent developments
GE Verona Gets NRC OK for 8% U235 Fuel Production
Global Nuclear Fuel, a business unit of GE Vernova, has received regulatory approval from the NRC to to manufacture, ship and analyze the performance of nuclear fuel with Uranium-235 enrichments of up to 8 percent.
With the latest NRC approval of GNF’s fuel fabrication license amendment, the company’s manufacturing facility in Wilmington, NC is the first commercial facility in the U.S. to hold a license to fabricate fuel enrichments up to 8 weight percent. The NRC has issued a Certificate of Compliance allowing GNF to ship nuclear fuel bundles up to 8 weight percent utilizing the company’s RAJ-II shipping container. The NRC has also approved licensing topical reports for advanced nuclear methods that enable GNF to analyze fuel with enrichments greater than 5 weight percent.
These approvals were made possible in part by work GNF and GE Vernova’s Advanced Research business have conducted for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Accident Tolerant Fuel (ATF) Program. GNF is developing and deploying fuel technologies with enhanced accident tolerance and operational flexibility while enabling sustained economic performance by improving bundle efficiency.
The company isn’t resting on its laurels. A key future goal may be to fabricate fuel elements at higher enrichment levels.
Mike Chilton, Executive Vice President, GNF, said, “We will continue to innovate to help our customers run their plants even more efficiently and be ready to support the next generation of reactor technology with reliable, flexible fuel products as the industry progresses to the use of higher enrichments.”
Higher enrichment fuels are anticipated to improve nuclear fuel cycle economics including through power uprates for existing boiling water reactors and also for the next generation of reactor technology including advanced and small modular reactors.
Nuclear fuel with enrichment levels of between 5-20% U235 are also known as ‘high assay low enrichment uranium’ (HALEU) fuel. This type of enrichment level is needed for many types of advanced reactors now being developed in the US and Canada as well as in many other countries.
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Fuel Fabrication Efforts Show Progress for HALEU
Profound supply chain issues for HALEU affect the industry because until the Russian invasion of Ukraine, most HALEU came from Russia. US and European countries have mounted concerted efforts to develop supplies of HALEU to end dependence on Russia for it.
HALEU Fabrication. Image: US Department of Energy
Two developers of advanced reactors, TerraPower and X-Energy, are using cost shared funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) to build fuel fabrication plants to supply their respective designs with specific forms of HALEU.
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