Reprinted from Frontiers 2000.
![Sweden’s R-2 Reactor was converted to low-enrichment uranium fuel.](/peth04/20041015020735im_/http://www.td.anl.gov/images/rertr/rertrnk.jpg)
Sweden’s R-2 Reactor was converted to low-enrichment uranium
fuel. |
![](/peth04/20041015020735im_/http://www.td.anl.gov/images/spacers/shim.gif) |
A new nuclear fuel that will soon allow almost every research reactor in the
world to convert to proliferation-resistant fuel is being developed by Argonne’s
Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactor (RERTR) program.
Approximately 250 nuclear research and test reactors in 57 nations play a vital
role in medicine, agriculture and industry. For example, they provide neutrons
for cancer therapy, medical isotope production and improved pharmaceuticals.
They also produce tracer elements for pollution and waste migration studies.
Through neutron radiography, these reactors help diagnose defects in metals and
engines; through neutron scattering they assist the development of new magnetic
and superconducting materials. The reactors also allow reactor fuels and
materials testing, and training for reactor operators and international
inspectors. Unfortunately, about half of these reactors are powered by fuels
that contain highly enriched uranium; that is, uranium with a uranium-235
content of 20 percent or more that can be directly used to make nuclear weapons.
Argonne’s RERTR program is concentrating on developing a new,
low-enrichment-uranium (LEU) fuel suitable for almost all the world’s research
reactors. LEU fuel contains less than 20 percent uranium-235 and provides an
isotopic barrier to weapons usability by rogue nations and terrorists. The new
fuel is a dispersion of uranium-molybdenum (U-Mo) alloy in aluminum. Argonne is
testing it in research reactors in the United States and in Europe.
By the end of 2005, we expect to qualify a very dense LEU fuel based on
uranium-molybdenum alloy, said Armando Travelli, who manages the RERTR program.
This fuel should meet all the main non-proliferation goals of the RERTR program
with favorable implications for the reactors’ performance and research
productivity. This new U-Mo fuel will enable the LEU conversion of reactors that
cannot be converted today, he said. It will also ensure better efficiency and
performance for all LEU research reactors and will allow the design of more
efficient and powerful new advanced LEU research reactors.
The RERTR program plans to qualify the U-Mo dispersion fuel with an intermediate
uranium density by the end of 2003. The future of several foreign research
reactors that currently use LEU silicide fuel depends on reaching this
intermediate goal. In 2006, the United States will no longer accept spent fuel
from foreign research reactors. The spent fuel would then be sent to the COGEMA
fuel-processing facility in France, but COGEMA does not process silicide fuel.
LEU U-Mo fuel is acceptable to COGEMA and, if qualified by 2003, will give the
reactor operators sufficient time to gain regulatory approval and to complete
irradiation of their current fuel before the 2006 deadline.
The U.S. Department of Energy started the RERTR program in 1978 under Argonne
leadership. The department was motivated by concerns that international traffic
in highly enriched uranium fuel could provide opportunities for terrorists or
rogue nations to divert some of this material to weapons use. Under the RERTR
program’s guidance, 36 reactors in 22 countries have converted or are converting
to RERTR-developed LEU fuel, and 21 new research reactors have been built or
planned that use this fuel. In addition, six nations, including the United
States, can now fabricate and supply research reactors with LEU fuels developed
by the RERTR program, and three more nations are developing this capability.
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