POWER September 2013 - 58

NUCLEAR FUEL
SILEX Process Promises ThirdGeneration
Uranium Enrichment
Technology for U.S.
Last year the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a construction and operating
license to General Electric-Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment LLC for its
proposed uranium enrichment plant in North Carolina, which will use the Separation
of Isotopes by Laser Excitation (SILEX) process to enrich uranium for
commercial nuclear reactor fuel. Today, the majority of U.S. enriched uranium
is supplied by foreign sources; tomorrow the GLE facility promises to secure
domestic enrichment services for the next generation of reactors.
By James M. Hylko
O
n Sept. 25, 2012, the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued
a construction and operating
license (COL) to General Electric-Hitachi
Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE) for
its uranium enrichment plant using the
Separation of Isotopes by Laser Excitation
(SILEX) process. This third-generation process
uses lasers to separate or enrich UF6
gas-the working medium of the enrichment
process-in uranium-235 (U-235). Once the
plant is operational, it will sell enrichment
services to clients (including the U.S. government)
to produce low-enriched uranium
fuel for nuclear reactors.
The Need for Enrichment Services
According to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration, the demand for enriched uranium
in the U.S. is being supplied by three
sources:
■ Domestic production: 16% of U.S. demand.
■
The Megatons-to-Megawatts Program:
about 37% of U.S. demand.
■ Other foreign sources: about 47% of U.S.
demand. Countries that produce and export
enriched uranium to the U.S. include
China, France, Germany, the Netherlands,
and the United Kingdom.
The primary U.S. uranium enrichment facility
is the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant
(GDP) in Paducah, Ky., operated by USEC
Inc.'s subsidiary, the United States Enrichment
Corp. (USEC). The Paducah GDP is
scheduled to be de-leased back to the Department
of Energy in 2013. This expected closure
58
will decrease domestic production capability.
USEC's former Portsmouth GDP in Piketon,
Ohio, ceased production in May 2001, and parts
of that site are undergoing decommissioning,
while the Oak Ridge site, K-25, ceased operation
in 1987 and is undergoing decommissioning and
demolition. The current 16% domestic production
is in sharp contrast to the 1970s, when these
plants provided more than 90% of the enriched
uranium for the western world's nuclear plants.
An August 2012 web posting by URENCO USA
in Eunice, N.M., notes that company has been in
commercial operation since June 2010 and that
" Construction of the project will continue until
the plant reaches the planned 5,700 tSW/a [metric
tons of separated work per year] capacity. "
URENCO USA, the first enrichment facility to
be built in the U.S. in 30 years, uses centrifuge
enrichment technology and has contracts with
around 50 utilities in 17 countries.
The second source, the Megatons-toMegawatts
program, implements a 1993
government-to-government agreement between
the U.S. and Russia that calls for Russia
to convert 550 U.S. tons of highly enriched
uranium from dismantled nuclear warheads
into low-enriched uranium (LEU). This is
equivalent to about 20,000 nuclear warheads.
USEC purchases the enriched portion of the
" downblended " material, tests it to verify that
it meets specifications, adjusts the enrichment
level if needed, and then sells it to its electric
utility customers for fuel in commercial nuclear
reactors. All program activities in the U.S.
take place at the Paducah GDP.
Despite the scheduled ending of the Megatons-to-Megawatts
Program in 2013, USEC Inc.
signed an agreement in March 2011 with Russian
corporation JSC " Techsnabexport " (TENwww.powermag.com
EX)
to import, under a new 10-year agreement,
LEU from Russia at levels initially expected to
reach approximately one-half the level of the
Russian downblended weapons-grade materials
in 2015. The agreement includes an option
to increase quantities equivalent to the Megatons-to-Megawatts
Program.
The current five-year average U.S. demand
for enriched uranium is approximately
14 million separative work units (SWU) per
year, and could reach 15 to 16 million SWU
by 2025, depending on the rate of nuclear
generation growth in the U.S. ( " Separative
work unit " describes the effort needed to separate
uranium-235 and uranium-238 atoms in
natural uranium to create a final product that
is enriched in uranium-235 atoms. It takes
about 100,000 SWU of enriched uranium to
fuel a typical 1,000-MW commercial nuclear
reactor for a year.) The overwhelming percentage
of domestic enrichment capacity
being provided by foreign sources imposes
obvious reliability risks, and potential detrimental
impacts to national energy security.
To help fill the anticipated supply deficit,
other potential domestic sources have
emerged in recent years. For example, the
NRC issued licenses to USEC Inc.'s American
Centrifuge Plant (ACP) in Piketon,
Ohio, in 2007 and AREVA Enrichment Services
LLC's Eagle Rock Enrichment Facility
(EREF) in Bonneville County, Idaho, in
2011. These facilities are based on the gaseous
centrifuge technology. According to the
NRC, when the ACP was licensed, it was expected
to produce 3.5 million SWU annually,
with peak capacity of 3.8 million SWU. The
EREF is licensed to produce up to 6.6 million
SWU annually.
POWER | September 2013
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POWER September 2013

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