Mini nuclear power plant: fuel could be suitable for nuclear bombs
New types of reactors are being planned with more highly enriched uranium. This could lead to material for more nuclear weapons, warn MIT researchers.
Latest generation reactor type: the SMR AP300 from Westinghouse.
(Image: Westinghouse)
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are warning that the HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium) fuel intended for new types of nuclear reactors such as the "Small Modular Reactor" (or mini nuclear power plant) can be used directly for the construction of nuclear bombs. Tests have shown this. The practical limit for nuclear weapons-grade material has been set too low, writes an MIT research team in Science magazine.
Conventional nuclear reactors make do with fuel that is enriched with up to 5 percent uranium-235. Above 20 percent 235U, the isotope mixture is referred to as highly enriched uranium (HEU) and is internationally recognized as being directly suitable for nuclear weapons. The researchers are now calling for uranium to be classified as just as dangerous as HEU from 10 to 12 percent enrichment. Fuel from a single SMR would be enough to build a nuclear bomb that would be more powerful than the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in the Second World War.
Governments are supporting interest in HALEU with billions in funding, the researchers write. In January of this year, the British government explicitly mentioned this type of fuel in its roadmap for power generation. Its higher enrichment level is needed for the next generation of nuclear reactors. The researchers counter that such governments and other proponents have not carefully considered that such weapons-grade material could also fall into the hands of terrorists, for example. This would undermine 70 years of efforts to prevent nuclear weapons or curb their proliferation.
Civilian and military plans with HALEU
HALEU is not only planned as fuel for SMRs. DARPA, the research arm of the US Department of Defense, has reached an agreement with the arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin to develop and build an experimental demonstration rocket with a nuclear thermal propulsion system. The HALEU required for this is to be provided by the US Department of Energy.
The US government has also commissioned the companies BWX Technologies and X-energy to develop a transportable nuclear microreactor. The BWXT concept envisages a gas-cooled high-temperature facility that, like other new reactor concepts, is to be operated with tristructural-isotropic (triso) HALEU. "Triso" means that the nuclear fuel consists of triple-coated spheres, explains the German Society for Plant and Reactor Safety (GRS). At present, only China and Russia have HALEU production capacities.
The UK wants to have such production ready for operation by the early 2030s. This is to take place at the Urenco site in Capenhurst near Liverpool. The Urenco subsidiary UTD, which is based in Gronau, and ETC in Jülich are responsible for developing the uranium centrifuges required for this. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War expressed concern about this in January of this year: "Largely unnoticed by the German public, nuclear powers such as Great Britain, but also France and the USA, are pressing ahead with their plans to produce more highly enriched, more compact nuclear fuel, which can then also be used for military purposes," writes the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. The German government must prevent Urenco subsidiaries in NRW from secretly participating in such projects.
(anw)