Scientists find a more efficient and safer nuclear fuel design as uranium shortage beckons

Various: MIT scientists in the nuclear engineering department have discovered that by forming uranium fuel rods into hollow tubes rather than solid cylinders increases the efficiency of the reactor says a report by the Heartland Institute. A reactor using the new fuel rods would operate at 700 Celsius instead of 1800 degrees Celsius, decreasing the amount of stress on the reactor core and increasing safety. Since the early 1990s, a number of reactors in the US have increased their operating temperatures from 900 to 1200-1700 degrees Celsius for reactor efficiency. These new fuel rods could help extend the life of existing reactors by operating the reactors at these lower temperatures.According to John J. Fialka in the Wall Street Journal, a recent flood in a planned Canadian uranium mine which was to supply 17% of global uranium demand, has caused a shortage in raw uranium just as the industry prepares to build a new class of nuclear reactors. The only existing solution for the US nuclear industry is to try and obtain enriched uranium from Russia, or to “blend down” highly enriched uranium from retired US nuclear warheads, or by reprocessing uranium waste from US nuclear weapons production says Clay Sell, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy. The new MIT fuel rods could also help manage to stretch out fuel stocks once they become commercially viable. However, according to Pavel Hejzlar and Mujid Kazimi at MIT, it will take 10 years before the new fuel rods will be available.