Uranium procurement procedures topic of seminar at WSU Tri-Cities

RICHLAND — How to procure uranium to fuel nuclear power plants will be addressed at a nuclear engineering-related professional development seminar Friday, Dec. 5, at WSU Tri-Cities.
 
The presenter is Lisa L. Ferek, fuel management lead for Energy Northwest, which operates the Columbia Generating Station in Richland.
 
The hour-long seminar starts at 12:10 p.m. in Room 210 of the West Building, 2710 University Drive, Richland. Admission is free and open to the public. The session is being shared by videoconference with WSU Pullman in the Murrow Communications Center West (MURW), Room 52.
 
“Radical growth is forecast for the nuclear power sector in the U.S. and worldwide,” Ferek said. “This growth will spur demand for uranium and the related services required to provide fuel for the reactors.
 
“The ability of the market to provide a sufficient, stable supply of fuel to meet demand is essential for the future of the industry. However, the fuel market is surprisingly flexible and rapidly evolving to meet the changing conditions,” she said. “This seminar will discuss the key aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle and the fundamentals of fuel procurement.”
 
Specific topics include the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle, secondary supplies, uranium demand, and uranium markets.
 
Ferek has been directly involved in nuclear fuel procurement for eight years, with a total of 17 years of experience in the nuclear power industry. She recently spent one year working on the National Enrichment Facility currently under construction in New Mexico. She has been involved in spent fuel management and disposal activities at Energy Northwest and other utilities.
 
She graduated with a bachelor of science in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University in 1990, and started her career as a Reactor Engineer.
 
This is the sixth and last nuclear engineering-related seminar in the Fall 2008 series, which was coordinated by Richard Stout as part of the WSU Tri-Cities Engineering program. Stout is a nuclear physicist and is president of the Eastern Washington section of the American Nuclear Society.
 
For more details on the nuclear-related engineering courses offered at WSU Tri-Cities, visit www.tricity.wsu.edu/nuclearengineering or contact Academic Director Scott Hudson at 509-372-7254 or shudson@tricity.wsu.edu.