Reducing the Use of Highly Enriched Uranium in Civilian Research Reactors (2016) / Chapter Skim
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6 Conversion Program: Status and Management
6 Conversion Program: Status and Management
Pages 107-122
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From page 107... ...
was organized into three pillars: convert, remove, and secure. In 2009, the main activities of the Convert Program were the conversion of mainly nondomestic research reactors and the development of new high-density LEU fuels to enable the conversion of most of the remaining U.S.
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From page 108... ...
. The updated scope and time lines of the Convert Program are as follows: • To convert or verify the shutdown of the remaining 112 research reactors using HEU fuel by 2035.2 • To qualify very high-density UMo monolithic fuel by 2022.
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From page 109... ...
The hori zontal dotted line at 162 research reactors corresponds to the sum of the converted and shutdown reactors (90) and the total number of civilian research reactors currently using HEU fuel as established at the joint International Atomic Energy Agency–Academies meeting (72, see Appendix E)
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From page 110... ...
Figure 6-2 Bitmapped tors per year and confirmed the shutdown of 1.2 per year on average. After 2009, the program converted fewer research reactors per year (1.5)
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From page 111... ...
TABLE 6.2 Reactors Converted or Shut Down since 2009 Converted Comments and or Shut Conversion Country Facility Site Down Status Bulgaria IRT-2000 Institute for Nuclear 2009 Shut down Research and Nuclear Energy United States RTR -- University University of 2009 Full of Wisconsin - Wisconsin Research Reactor Hungary BRR Atomic Energy 2009 Full Research Institute United States NRAD -- Neutron Idaho National 2009 Full Radiography Laboratory Reactor Russia PhS-4 (FS-4) ENTEK 2010 Shut down Russia PhS-5 (FS-5)
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From page 112... ...
and Russian scientists collaborated to study the feasibility of converting Russian research reactors to 3 See President Obama's Four-Year Initiative (http://nnsa.energy.gov/sites/default/files/ nnsa/12-13-inlinefiles/2013-12-12%204%20Year%20Effort.pdf, p.
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From page 113... ...
Like the Convert Program, the Remove Program has expanded its scope over the years; it now includes some weapon-usable material supplied by countries other than the United States as well as additional forms of nuclear material.5 The Remove Program is organized into three components (Dickerson, 2014) : • U.S.-origin fuel return program: The return of U.S.-origin HEU and LEU to the United States for disposition was instituted to encour age countries to convert research reactors from HEU to LEU fuel.
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From page 114... ...
The FNR conversion was the demonstration project for the RERTR Program. Using the current M3 conversion metric, the number of existing HEU-fueled civilian research reactors decreased by one in 1981.8 However, spent HEU fuel remained at UM until October 1987, when it was shipped to the S avannah River Nuclear Solutions.
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From page 115... ...
Reduction in the amount of weapon-grade HEU fuel shipped to HEU-fueled research reactors during the reporting period attribut able to the conversion program. The committee acknowledges the challenges posed by reporting detailed quantities of HEU stores.
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From page 116... ...
Finding 15: The Material Management and Minimization Office of Conversion's current plan for conversion of all the civilian research reactors currently using highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel by 2035 is highly uncertain, primarily because of nontechnical factors.
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From page 117... ...
The program "reset" reassessed fuel development decisions and time lines with input from the fuel manufacturing and the fuel development technical leads. Time lines for fuel development and manufacturing were expanded after program managers recognized the extent of the technical challenges involved.
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From page 118... ...
. Addressing the remaining technical risks for the conversion program requires taking a broad, critical look at the entire fuel development, fabrication, and manufacturing process, up to and including reactor conversion and back-end processes for spent fuel and scrap material.
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From page 119... ...
The fuel development review is the only technical review in the conversion program of which the committee is aware. The members of the review team are reactor fuel experts (Hobbins, 2015)
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From page 120... ...
. The lack of an independent technical review of each phase of the fuel development, fabrication, manufacturing, and utilization life cycle is a serious shortcoming in the management of the conversion program.
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From page 121... ...
Finding 17: The technical setbacks and increasingly longer time lines for the conversion of U.S. high performance research reactors emphasize the need to incorporate regular independent technical and program matic evaluations into the Office of Conversion program manager's decision-making process.
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