ALEXANDER GLASER

The new spirit and urgency of converting the remaining HEU-fueled reactors to low-enriched fuel, combined with the prospects of new ultra-high-density fuels, provides the main impetus and defines the basic scientific objectives for this thesis... In Chapter 2, the use of highly enriched uranium in the nuclear fuel cycle and its proliferation potential are reviewed from a technical perspective. The most important differences between low-enriched and highly enriched uranium are discussed, particularly with respect to weapon-usability, and the proliferation potential of research reactor fuel quantified. This analysis reconfirms that, from a nonproliferation perspective, an enrichment of (just less than) 20% indeed represents the optimum enrichment level for research reactors. Global HEU inventories and its present use in the nuclear fuel cycle conclude this introductory chapter... The potential (and limits) of monolithic fuels, which can be roughly anticipated from Figure 2, is largely..