By Brian Schimmoller, Contributing Editor

Growing global interest in nuclear power is focusing attention on the infrastructure, capital investment and human resource requirements associated with new plant construction. In addition to the 30 countries that already use nuclear power, the International Atomic Energy Agency reports that another 60 countries are considering its use.

Beyond these headlines, an oft-overlooked aspect of the expected nuclear buildout is the nuclear fuel supply chain. The wave of new nuclear plants around the globe will require a corresponding substantial increase in fuel supply capacity. “Global demand for low-enriched uranium is expected to increase by up to 35 percent by 2020,” said Tammy Orr, president and CEO of Global Laser Enrichment. “Further, in the United States, a major supply of low-enriched uranium for nuclear power plants will cease in 2013, with the expiration of the ‘Megatons to Megawatts’ program to convert Russian weapons-grade material into nuclear fuel.”

Producing nuclear fuel from uranium ore is a four-step process encompassing mining and milling to create uranium oxide, chemical conversion to uranium hexafluoride, enrichment to increase the U-235 content to a useful fraction for fission and fabrication into fuel assemblies. To fill the expected gap created by the reduced supply from the Megatons to Megawatts program and the increased demand as new nuclear plants come on-line, companies all along the nuclear fuel supply chain are taking action.

A strong indication of the confidence in the future of nuclear power is the level of investment in new enrichment plants. Two methods are currently used commercially to enrich uranium. Gaseous diffusion enriches uranium based on the increased frequency with which lighter U-235 gas molecules strike and pass through a semi-permeable wall. Gas centrifuge separation uses a large number of cylindrical centrifuges rotating at high speed to separate the lighter U-235 molecules from the heavier U-238 molecules. Centrifuge separation is less energy intensive than gaseous diffusion, requiring about 1/50 of the energy per SWU (separative work units are a measure of the energy required to enrich uranium).

Although centrifuge separation has been used in Europe for more than 30 years, its use in the U.S. is just beginning. Louisiana Energy Services is building the country’s first gas centrifuge plant in New Mexico, with startup planned for later this year. A second plant, to be built in Piketon, Ohio by the United States Enrichment Company (USEC), received a construction and operation license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2007.USEC temporarily ceased development activities in late July after learning the Department of Energy would not be awarding the company a loan guarantee; within about a week, however, public and political pressure compelled DOE to reconsider its decision and grant a six-month extension for additional review. USEC had already invested about $1.5 billion in developing the facility. An application for a third centrifuge plant, being developed by Areva in Idaho, is currently undergoing regulatory review.

The Piketon plant temporary “demobilization” indicates that nuclear fuel supply chain developers are apparently as dependent on the loan guarantee program as the nuclear plant developers themselves. Financing will be difficult even if all the loan guarantee planets align; any wobble can threaten a project’s basic viability.

A third uranium enrichment technology under development—laser enrichment—may offer advantages over gaseous diffusion and gas centrifuge separation. General Electric, in association with Hitachi Ltd. and uranium mining company Cameco, is currently commercializing an Australian laser enrichment technology through its Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) venture.

GLE’s uranium enrichment process uses lasers tuned to specific frequencies to selectively excite uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas molecules and enable separation of the U-235 isotope from the UF6 feedstock. The result is a UF6 product stream enriched in the U-235 isotope and a UF6 tails stream in which the fraction of U-235 isotope is reduced or depleted.

GLE submitted its license application to the NRC in late June. The NRC application review is expected to take 30 months. If GLE decides to proceed with commercial deployment, construction could begin once the NRC license is received. To gather data to inform its decision, GLE licensed and built a test loop at its Wilmington, N.C. facilities, with initial startup announced in July.

Data from the test loop will be used to refine operating parameters for the full-scale laser enrichment facility. If construction proceeds, the GLE commercial production facility would have a target capacity of 3.5 to 6 million SWU.

Because the GLE process involves classified and controlled information protected by U.S. laws and regulations, quantified advantages over competing technologies have not been disclosed. Nuclear fuel experts believe, however, that laser enrichment has the potential to consume less power, create less waste and be more efficient than gaseous diffusion and gas centrifuge separation. Nuclear utilities have expressed initial support; Exelon and Entergy, for example, signed non-binding letters of intent with GLE for laser-based uranium enrichment services.

The laser enrichment technology’s proprietary nature calls attention to nuclear fuel enrichment’s proliferation aspects. With gaseous diffusion, the size of the facilities and quantities of uranium required have historically provided substantial proliferation resistance. With gas centrifuge technology, proliferation resistance has diminished, as demonstrated by suspected uranium enrichment for weapons development in Iran and Pakistan using gas centrifuge technology. Further reductions in proliferation resistance may accompany a switch to advanced laser-based technologies.

Too early to tell, of course. Still, as is often the case with nuclear power, while technology advances are welcome, careful deployment, management and operation will dictate ultimate safety, security and commercial success.