Uranium must be enriched in isotope 235U content to be useful. For current civilian applications, enrichment is generally in the range of 3-5% for power reactors and 90% and above for a limited number of high-performance research reactors used for science and technology investigations and applications. Between these two extremes, 20% enrichment is defined as the boundary between low-enriched (LEU) and high-enriched (HEU) uranium, based on the risk of nuclear proliferation. There is considerable interest in fabricating and manufacturing enriched uranium near 20% enrichment, so-called “high-assay low-enriched uranium” or HALEU. Such a material could potentially both eliminate of HEU from research reactors and enable new advanced power reactor designs and other concepts. I will discuss the significant technical challenges and progress in demonstrating HALEU with the required properties, as well as upcoming challenges in manufacturing and other aspects of making HALEU a commercial reality.
The College of Arts