1995 - Report on Low Enrichment Fuel in Naval Nuclear Propulsion

This report responds to a requirement in Section 1042 of the FY 1995 Defense Authorization Act.

The report concludes that the use of LEU in U.S. Naval reactor plants is technically feasible, but uneconomic and impractical. The use of LEU in place HEU would reduce the amount of fissionable fuel which could be packed into a naval reactor core. There are two ways to develop an LEU fuel system which ensures the essential naval reactor functional requirements would be me:

1. Replace HEU with LEU in current reactor designs - Would need 10% more ships to compensate with need for more refuelings

2. Redesign to accommodate the larger core with significant one-time design costs.