Symposia

To increase energy security and to reduce carbon emissions to the atmosphere, the world is preparing for a new era of expansion in nuclear energy.  The rate at which nuclear energy growth will materialize is subject to several constraints.  Many of the constraints are related to the fuel cycle. This symposium, jointly organized by CANES of MIT and Directorate of Advanced Reactors at the CEA of France, will review the fuel cycle options and address several questions:

• Does the world have enough uranium to support such an expansion without resorting to fuel breeding in advanced fast reactors? 
• What reactors and fuel cycle options are best to reduce the burden of storage and disposal of spent fuel?
• What chemical separation and fuel recycling industrial technology and infrastructure are needed to allow nuclear to expand at a rate many times the rate experienced near the end of the last century?
• What are the differences in the economics of open and closed nuclear fuel cycles?
• How can the world cope with an expanded use of nuclear civilian applications without increasing the threat of nuclear weapons?

This international symposium is dedicated to the memory of Manson Benedict, the main developer of molecular diffusion as uranium enrichment technology during the Manhattan project, the founder of the professional discipline of nuclear chemical engineering, and the founder of the Department of Nuclear Engineering at MIT who passed away on September 18, 2006.