The DOE/NRC Criticality Safety for Commercial-Scale High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU) for Fuel Cycle and Transportation (DNCSH) initiative is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to establish new criticality benchmark data for commercial-scale nuclear energy. The results will be crucial for the regulation and licensing of facilities handling special nuclear material and the certification of transportation packages for such materials, as outlined in the federal regulations. The project also l engages in activities that support the efficiency and robustness of licensing and criticality safety benchmark development processes such as nuclear data improvements.
DOE is funding 16 projects through the first proposal call. The laboratory-led awards will cover the following five topic areas:
- UF6 transportation with moderator exclusion
- 10-20% enrichment gap
- Non-fissile material validation
- Fissile salts
- Advanced moderator nuclear data
These projects will support the development of data that will be useful to the NRC licensing evaluation process and industry’s licensing submittals pertaining to commercial-scale HALEU operations. The publicly available data developed from these projects will enable efficient future design and safety reviews and help the nuclear industry develop new and novel solutions to address data gaps.
The awardees span six national laboratories and include partnerships with six universities and multiple industry partners.
Please visit DOE/NRC Collaboration for Criticality Safety Support for Commercial-Scale HALEU Fuel Cycles and Transportation (DNCSH) | ORNL for more information.
More information coming soon.