existing supply chain for nuclear reactors fuel is split broadly into four phases \u2013 mining, conversion, enrichment and fabrication<\/a>.<\/p>\nMining involves extracting uranium ore from the ground and crushing it into uranium oxide powder called \u201cyellowcake\u201d.<\/p>\n
Conversion involves a chemical process where the yellowcake is turned into uranium hexafluoride, or \u201chex\u201d.<\/p>\n
Enrichment involves heating the hex, which turns it into a gas, and then spinning it in centrifuges at extremely high speeds. This separates Uranium-235 from Uranium-238.<\/p>\n
U-235 can split under nuclear fission, and the goal of enrichment for LEU is to achieve 3-5% of U-235. From 3-5% of enriched U-235 can sustain a chain reaction in most existing deployed reactor designs. LEU+ is enriched to 5 to 10%.<\/p>\n
The final stage is fabrication, where enriched uranium gas is turned into a powder for pressing into ceramic pellets, which are stacked into fuel rods and assemblies. Those assemblies are then loaded into nuclear reactors.<\/p>\n
The UK does have natural uranium deposits but they are not economically viable, so it is entirely reliant on imports. Australia has the largest reserves \u2013 28% of global reserves. While Russia has 8%.<\/p>\n
Other reserves are located in Kazakhstan (14%), Canada (10%), Namibia (8%), South Africa (5%), Niger (6%), China (5%) and Brazil (3%).<\/p>\n
Urenco is the UK\u2019s leading enricher. It does not ship its finished product to nuclear power stations, because its product must be fabricated by specialist fabrication providers.<\/p>\n
This means that once prospective LEU+ customers give Urenco the go-ahead to start supplying them, Urenco would transport its LEU+ to fabricators, and then the fabricated fuel would be sent on to nuclear power stations.<\/p>\n
In a press release from the company, Urenco head of advanced fuels (commercial) Magnus Mori, said: \u201cUrenco is committed to enriching uranium for the reactors of today and tomorrow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis production trial of LEU+ at Capenhurst has provided a successful outcome and demonstrates our commitment to advancing the nuclear industry in the UK and globally.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are continuing to focus on implementing other operational measures for LEU+, including\u00a0 transport solutions, as a next step.\u201d<\/p>\n
NCE spoke with Urenco chief operating officer Bridget Sparrow ahead of the announcement (on 6 May), where she explained the benefits of LEU+ compared to LEU.<\/p>\n
Sparrow said that the LEU+ is for light water reactors (LWRs). LWR reactor technology is at the heart of pressurised water reactors (PWR) \u2013 such as Sizewell B. In addition, Rolls-Royce SMR\u2019s reactor design is based on standard PWR technology.<\/p>\n
Sizewell C (main image above) and Hinkley Point C both use European pressurised water reactor (EPR) technology and could both potentially choose to use LEU+. Contracts for purchases of LEU+ may not be publicly disclosed and Urenco does not generally disclose information about its clients.<\/p>\n
The benefit of LEU+, according to Sparrow, \u201cis that using LEU+ allows [reactors] to run for longer, because typically a reactor has to go into what\u2019s called a turnaround or a shutdown to replace the fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that LEU+ is \u201cmore efficient from a cost per unit perspective\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent reactors have different durations between turnarounds. But let\u2019s say, if one was currently doing a turnaround every 18 months, [using LEU+ instead of LEU] it would extend it to two years,\u201d Sparrow said, and added that LEU+ provides an \u201cincremental improvement\u201d compared to LEU.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t had the demand from the industry before\u201d for LEU+, Sparrow said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of the interest for LEU+ initially is in the US. We have some interest in Europe, but, it\u2019s very early days. That\u2019s what I would say in terms of determining exactly where the market is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from finalising commercial contracts with end users, such as nuclear power plant owners, the remaining hurdle for Urenco to be able to bring its newly established LEU+ production capability to market is a suitable container for the uranium.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re working with a company called Orano to provide us with a container that\u2019s suitable for transporting LEU+,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re almost ready to provide us with that. And as soon as we have it, then we can start to transport it in the UK and Europe. We do have a transport solution for our facility in the US, but that is not available to us in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Urenco spokesperson clarified to NCE that, although the LEU+ trial has finished, the company is \u201cfinalising the safety arrangements and processes with the UK regulator.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s all there is left to do with it,\u201d they said<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd one part of that is the transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Urenco is drawing attention to its LEU+ production capabilities, its plans to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) require much more investment.<\/p>\n
The UK Government has made HALEU a big focus of its nuclear policy, including by investing up to \u00a3300M to establish a UK HALEU supply chain.<\/p>\n
\u201cHALEU is a much larger investment for us because we have to build a new plant to produce HALEU [whereas] we can use our existing facilities to produce LEU+,\u201d Sparrow said.<\/p>\n
She added that Urenco may in future decide to use its LEU+ as a feedstock for producing HALEU, but that would be subject to customer demands.<\/p>\n
Like what you’ve read?\u00a0To receive New Civil Engineer’s daily and weekly newsletters click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The uranium enricher Urenco has completed a UK trial where it produced a new type of nuclear fuel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[13028,13029,13030,13031,8895,13032,5,6,13033,13034],"class_list":{"0":"post-29867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"tag-capenhurst","9":"tag-haleu","10":"tag-leu","11":"tag-low-enriched-uranium","12":"tag-nuclear","13":"tag-nuclear-fuel-cycle","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-uranium","17":"tag-urenco"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116527281321778324","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}