Uranium enrichment: investment options for the long term

Book · Fri Dec 31 23:00:00 EST 1982

OSTI ID:7070100

The US government supplies a major portion of the enriched uranium used to fuel most of the nuclear power plants that furnish electricity in the free world. As manager of the US uranium enrichment concern, the Department of Energy (DOE) is investigating a number of technological choices to improve enrichment service and remain a significant world supplier. The Congress will ultimately select a strategy for federal investment in the uranium enrichment enterprise. A fundamental policy choice between possible future roles - that of the free world's main supplier of enrichment services, and that of a mainly domestic supplier - will underlie any investment decision the Congress makes. The technological choices are gaseous diffusion, gas centrifuge, and atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS). A base plan and four alternatives were examined by DOE and the Congressional Budget Office. In terms of total enterprise costs, Option IV, ultimately relying on advanced gas centrifuges for enrichment services, would offer the most economic approach, with costs over the full projection period totaling $123.5 billion. Option III, ultimately relying on AVLIS without gas centrifuge enrichment or gaseous diffusion, falls next in the sequence, with costs of $128.2 billion. Options I and II, involving combinations of the gas centrifuge and AVLIS technologies, follow closely with costs of $128.7 and $129.6 billion. The base plan has costs of $136.8 billion over the projection period. 1 figure, 22 tables.

• OSTI ID: 7070100
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050500* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Uranium Enrichment
051000 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Economic
Industrial
& Business Aspects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290200 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Economics & Sociology
290600 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Nuclear Energy
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
ACTINIDE NUCLEI
ACTINIDES
ALPHA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CENTRIFUGATION
COST
ELEMENTS
ENRICHED URANIUM
EVEN-ODD NUCLEI
GAS CENTRIFUGATION
GASEOUS DIFFUSION PROCESS
GOVERNMENT POLICIES
HEAVY NUCLEI
INVESTMENT
ISOMERIC TRANSITION ISOTOPES
ISOTOPE ENRICHED MATERIALS
ISOTOPE SEPARATION
ISOTOPES
LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION
MATERIALS
METALS
MINUTES LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
NUCLEI
PRODUCTION
RADIOISOTOPES
SEPARATION PROCESSES
URANIUM
URANIUM 235
URANIUM ISOTOPES
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES