September-October 2018 NPJ

High Assay LEU By Jeffrey Merrifield and Anne Leidich, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP. Sponsored by the ClearPath Foundation and U.S. Nuclear Industry Council. Jeffrey Merrifield Jeff Merrifield, a former presidential appointee to the NRC, is a partner and leader of Pillsbury’s Energy practice. Jeff utilizes the wide range of experience he has gained over the last 30 years to bring his clients a unique perspective on strategic problem- solving. Jeff’s well- received media and public speaking capabilities also provide a significant resource for the advocacy of common-sense and cost-effective solutions. Over the last five years, the United States has seen the development of a series of advanced non-light water nuclear reactors which are intended to utilize various forms of coolants and moderators that are different than the light-water cooled/moderated nuclear reactors (“LWR”) that are currently deployed in the U.S. Advanced reactors utilizemolten salt, high temperature gas (such as helium), liquid metal or other materials to provide a source of cooling, moderation and heat transport. Many of these advanced reactor designs have their origin in national laboratories and most of them were first conceptualized and tested beginning in the 1950s and 1960s. As a result of the U.S. decision to deploy light-wa- ter reactors for the Navy, and subse- quently for the civil- ian fleet, with few exceptions, virtually all of the nuclear reactors developed and built in the U.S. have been pressur- ized water (“PWR”) or boiling water reactors (“BWR”). One of the advan- tages of this is that there is a relatively uniform, common framework for supply- ing materials for these reactors, including the nuclear fuel for their operation. While the pending development of advanced reactors brings with it the po- tential for improved economics, lowered operating costs, higher utilization fac- tors, enhanced safety margins and greater modularity, the fuels used to operate these reactors will be of a much greater variety in their form and composition. Addition- ally, many, but not all of these advanced designs, will utilize a higher enrichment of fuel than the current LWR fleet. To fully document the potential for the advanced reactor designs, Third Way, which is a Washington, D.C. based think tank, issued a report on May 18, 2017, that indicated that there are currently 56 advanced nuclear concepts in North America under development with large numbers also underway outside the U.S. From information gathered by the authors, the vast majority of these reactor designs are planning to utilize higher enrichments of fuel, and some of these designs are proposed to come to the U.S. market in the mid to late 2020s. Similarly, a March 2017 survey of 18 leading U.S.-based advanced reactors developers by the U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Council (now the Nuclear Industry Council or USNIC) found that 67% of the companies said that an “assured supply of High Assay LEU” was either urgent or important, with squarely 50% of the overall respondents saying it was “urgent.” As the infrastructure for the production of civilian nuclear fuel, as well as the regulatory processes overseeing its production and use, have all been based on the existing LWR market, virtually every element of the nuclear fuel cycle has been tailored precisely for this market. As development and future deployment of many of the current advanced reactor designs requires utilizing fuel with higher enrichments of uranium, appropriate sources of this material will need to be identified or created, as no commercial source currently exists. This includes the means to enrich, transport, manufacture, store and dispose of this fuel. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (“NRC”), which is responsible for the regulation of all civilian uses of radioactive and nuclear material, will also need to tailor its regulatory framework to meet this need. This article explains the potential market for higher-enriched fuel that will be required by many of the advanced reactors under development, potential challenges that will be faced in supplying this higher-enriched fuel, and the regulatory changes that will be anticipated in the development of this material. The paper will also propose policy recommendations needed to accommodate the development, licensing and deployment of these reactors. 28 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2018