The need to preserve nuclear fuels and materials knowledge. Page: 4 of 8
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Nuclear research and development activities in the fuels and materials area, as well as
other areas, are greatly diminished today from what they were a few decades ago. The
facilities in which all the experiments on fuels and materials were conducted have fallen into
a state of degradation or have vanished. For example, there is no fast reactor irradiation
facility in the United States. Most importantly, the researchers who worked and lived
through this period of discovery and intense investigation are disappearing from the
workforce.
In most industries that have survived there has been continuity from initial discovery to
large-scale market penetration with a continuous flow of information and expertise from any
generation of workers to the next. Thermal reactor deployment too has enjoyed a semblance
of continuity on a worldwide scale. Reactor orders for new thermal reactors are again
beginning to accelerate. Thus, thermal spectrum fuels and materials research has progressed
with knowledge passing from one generation to the next. However, in the fast reactor area
the situation is far different and without precedent.
Interest in the deployment of fast breeder reactors has come to a halt in most countries
other than in Japan and Russia. Partly, this is due to proliferation concerns about the fuel
cycle but mostly it is due to the lack of near term economic necessity for additional fissile
material. Yet most studies indicate an exhaustion of reasonably priced uranium by mid-
century. Thus, interest in the fast breeder reactor will most assuredly reappear. The
questions addressed in this paper are: What will happen to the enormous amount of fuels,
materials, design and operational information that was generated through 50 years of intense
and expensive research and development effort? Is it sufficient to believe that it has been
documented well enough in the literature that the best of it will survive and will not have to
be recreated? Neither the people nor the facilities will be available to recreate the lost
information even a few years from now.
In an ongoing program such as Japan, in which the JOYO program is going well and
MONJU is about to be restarted there is little incentive to preserve information as must be
done in the US and France, for example. This is a pity because the issue of preserving
information is easier while it is being developed. Gathering past data, deciding on its
relevance and creating new databases of information in a closeout program is much more
difficult. In Russia, even with an ongoing program, the issue is recognized and would be
addressed but for the lack of sufficient funds.
Of what data and information are we speaking?A brief review of a typical fuels
irradiation experiment will illustrate the information associated with just such an
experiment.
The fuel and cladding had to be fabricated according to some specifications. It may be
that both the fuel and cladding were new and thus in the process of fabrication new
experience and knowledge were gained. Perhaps several attempts were required to correctly
produce the fuel and cladding. The failed fabrication attempts as well as the successes are all
valuable knowledge. The irradiation conditions are always important. The neutron flux and
temperature are either measured or calculated. The computer codes or measurement
techniques are important to be able to assess the validity of the data. After irradiation, the
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Walters, L. C. & Graham, J. The need to preserve nuclear fuels and materials knowledge., article, October 19, 2001; Illinois. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc717701/m1/4/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.