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Study Validates Benefits of Lightbridge Designed Fuel Rods for Weapons-Grade Plutonium Disposition
Lightbridge’s Design Consumes 5.5 Times More Plutonium RESTON, Va., Feb. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lightbridge Corporation (Nasdaq: LTBR), an advanced
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[{"type":"text","content":"Lightbridge’s Design Consumes 5.5 Times More Plutonium\nRESTON, Va., Feb. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lightbridge Corporation (Nasdaq: LTBR), an advanced nuclear fuel technology company, announced that a recently published peer-reviewed technical paper on the disposition of weapons-grade plutonium revealed that a Lightbridge-designed fuel rod significantly outperforms traditional mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel in consuming plutonium in a computer simulation, making the Lightbridge designed rods well suited for consuming excess weapons-grade plutonium. The paper’s title is “Improved Disposition of Surplus Weapons-Grade Plutonium Using a Metallic Pu-Zr Fuel Design.” The paper was co-authored by Braden Goddard, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Aaron Totemeier, Ph.D., Senior Nuclear Fuel Consultant to Lightbridge, for Nuclear Technology (NT), the leading international publication reporting new information on the practical application of nuclear science for peaceful uses. The paper can be accessed by visiting the following link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00295450.2022.2145836. The simulation detailed in the paper demonstrated that the Lightbridge plutonium disposition fuel variant consumes approximately 5.5 times more plutonium per fuel rod than MOX fuel. The high burnup of metallic fuel makes it particularly useful for consuming plutonium and reducing the material usefulness of the residual plutonium in the used fuel for weapons purposes. The simulation utilized the design of a variant of Lightbridge Fuel™, consisting of solid multi-lobe helically twisted metallic fuel rods (as opposed to the ceramic fuel rods currently used in nuclear power plants), which increases the fuel surface area, substituting the uranium-zirconium alloy with an equivalent plutonium-zirconium composition. The proliferation resistance of Lightbridge Fuel rods has been presented previously in Nuclear Engineering and Design, a technical journal affiliated with the European Nuclear Society. This peer-reviewed paper reported the results of a study that showed that Lightbridge's spent fuel could not be used by would-be proliferators to make nuclear weapons. Seth Grae, President and CEO of Lightbridge, commented, “We are pleased with the acceptance and publication of th...