Innovation in Nuclear Power

Abstract

Innovation in nuclear energy centres principally on four areas: Isotopic separation to enrich uranium for use in light-water reactors, reactor designs of diverse kinds, robust fuel designs, and the recycling of most of what is in used fuel. Allied to these are metallurgical and design improvements to basic concepts that have not changed fundamentally in decades. An analogy here is the contrast between the car of the 1960s and the car of today – the same idea, but very different in every detailed respect. In uranium enrichment we have come from very energy-intensive gaseous diffusion technology to evolving centrifuges and now seem to be on the threshold of commercial laser isotope separation. Reactor designs include those for fast neutron operation, high-temperature helium-cooled systems and others with the fuel carried in molten fluoride salt. There is more. Fuel design has progressively improved and provides for more efficient reactor operation with longer periods between refueling. Beyond this, electrometallurgical processes for recycling most of what is in used fuel promise significant advantages over the 1940s processes that remain predominant.