"Need Nukes Now" - so says Silicon Valley Execs - sci.environment

Message from discussion "Need Nukes Now" - so says Silicon Valley Execs
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From: Schmid...@y12.doe.dov (Russ Schmidt)
Newsgroups: sci.environment
Subject: Re: "Need Nukes Now" - so says Silicon Valley Execs
Date: 23 Feb 2001 21:34:59 GMT
Organization: BWXT Y-12 L.L.C.
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fungee <fun...@my-deja.com> wrote in <9769up$19...@news.netmar.com>:

>In article <Xns90516AC92D06CRWSLMESY12DOE...@128.219.128.109>, Russ
>Schmidt 
><Schmid...@y12.doe.dov> writes:
>
>>I don't know where the figures above came from, or what they include. I
>>am sure, from 14 years spent working in uranium enrichment, that the
>>energy used in gaseous diffusion requires about 3% of the electricity
>>generated by the enriched uranium. The centrifuge and laser processes
>>require less than 10% of the energy per separative work unit that
>>gaseous diffusion uses, but the equipment and other costs must also be
>>factored into the comparison. 
>
>I seem to recall that one enrichment plant needed about a GW. 
>Considering that there are over 100 operating reactors and even if the
>plant operated 24/7, that would be a quick-and-dirty
>back-of-the-envelope 1%.  The 3% number seems familiar, though.  What's
>the disconnect? 
>

(I attempted a response several hours ago, but it seems to have vanished 
without a trace, so I will try again.)

First, there are two GDPs (gaseous diffusion plants) operating in the US. 
If they were providing all of USEC's (the US Enrichment Corp, which runs 
the GDPs) enrichment, they would probably be running at a combined average 
of ~2400 MW. USEC is currently recieving lots of LEU derived from Russian 
HEU, so power levels are lower (and USEC has announced that the Portsmouth 
GDP will be shut down soon).

Second, USEC does not provide all of the US reactors with all of their 
demand. Some reactor operators buy from foreign enrichers or off of the 
spot market. On the other hand, USEC also sells to foreign utilities.

Third, the 3% number I provided above is a bit high. I remembered a value 
of about 2.5% and rounded up. Since you asked I re-did the calculation 
using relatively current values for burn-up and enrichment, and get a 
number a bit less than 2%.

Russ
-- 
Russ Schmidt       (i...@y12.doe.gov)
BWXT Y-12 L.L.C.
Oak Ridge, Tennessee     37831-2009