Pennsylvania Code › Title 52 - PUBLIC UTILITIES › Part I - Public Utility Commission › Subpart C - Fixed Service Utilities › Chapter 69 - GENERAL ORDERS, POLICY STATEMENTS AND GUIDELINES ON FIXED UTILITIES › POLICY STATEMENT ON NUCLEAR FUEL PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES › Section 69.207 - Nuclear fuel procurement process

Current through Register Vol. 54, No. 28, July 13, 2024
(a)
					 The nuclear fuel procurement process consists of the following major
					 procurement and processing steps prior to delivery of fuel bundles to the
					 nuclear plant, where the bundles are receipt-inspected prior to insertion in
					 the reactor.
(1)
Mining/milling.
Purchase of uranium concentrates
					 (U3O8) from a supplier who
					 processes the material as follows: After mining, the uranium ore is shipped to
					 a milling facility which extracts uranium concentrates by a chemical leaching
					 process. After drying and further processing, the substance consists of about
					 90% uranium oxide compound
					 (U3O8), which is referred to as
					 "yellow cake". In the nuclear fuel procurement process, the most options exist
					 for the acquisition of "yellow cake" where many suppliers exist. A utility
					 generally procures U3O8 ("yellow
					 cake") delivered to a preselected convertor.
(2)
Conversion.
The next
					 step in the procurement process is the purchase of conversion services.
					 Conversion is a chemical process where the
					 U3O8 is further refined,
					 impurities are extracted and in a series of additional steps the
					 U3O8 is converted to natural
					 uranium hexafluoride (UF6). Conversion services
					 represent a very small component of the total cost of nuclear fuel.
(3)
Enrichment.
(i) Natural UF6 is
					 shipped to an enrichment facility where it is subjected to a process to
					 increase the percentage of U-235 above that of the natural uranium. Enrichment
					 is a complex, costly and energy intensive procedure.
(ii) Domestic facilities owned and operated
					 by the United States Government enrich a major portion of uranium used by the
					 worldwide commercial reactor industry. Enrichment is performed under contracts
					 that are negotiated many years in advance of the actual work and are now
					 typically based upon the actual reactor requirements at time of order
					 placement.
(iii) New enrichment
					 technologies are currently being developed. These technologies, if successfully
					 demonstrated and licensed, may offer lower cost alternatives to that currently
					 provided by the United States Government.
(4)
Fabrication.
Fabrication
					 services usually include shipment of the enriched UF6 to
					 the fabricator, where it is converted to solid (UO2)
					 fuel pellets. The fuel pellets are loaded into hollow fuel rods made of a
					 special zirconium alloy which are then assembled into fuel bundles for use in
					 the reactor. Fuel assembly fabrication services have historically been provided
					 by the manufacturer of the nuclear steam supply system. In most cases, however,
					 other vendors are capable of performing fuel assembly services.
(5)
Receipt/inspection
. At
					 the reactor site the fabricated fuel bundles shall be loaded, moved to the fuel
					 floor and receipt/inspected prior to loading in the reactor in a predetermined
					 sequence. The fuel is normally delivered 2 to 3 months before the reactor is
					 shut down.