August 6, 2008

International Beryllium and Purdue officials announce collaborative agreement to advance research into safer, more efficient nuclear fuels

The objective of the prelicense agreement is to support the development an enhanced beryllium oxide nuclear fuel for commercial use in current and future nuclear power reactors.

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to work with Purdue on this exciting and potentially transformational nuclear fuel," said Anthony Dutton, president and CEO of International Beryllium. "We fundamentally believe that multioxide and BeO fuels are the way of the future and will be the foundation of a more efficient, economically sound and safer nuclear power industry.

"By supporting Purdue's ongoing nuclear fuels research, we aim to make an advanced UO2–BeO fuel commercially accessible and to enhance the value of our strategic assets for both our shareholders and the nuclear fuels industry."

Purdue has proposed a maximum 24-month development program with an estimated budget that will be the sole responsibility of International Beryllium and will be paid by the company on a quarterly installment basis.

The project will be led by Shripad Revankar, a Purdue professor of nuclear engineering. He will be assisted by Sean McDeavitt, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University. In addition, Alvin Solomon, a professor emeritus at Purdue's School of Nuclear Engineering and a pioneer in the field of high-thermal conductivity nuclear fuels, will act as a project consultant.

"Both Drs. Solomon and Revankar are leaders in the field of advanced nuclear fuels research and have published extensively in a variety of peer-reviewed scientific journals and have presented at a number of international nuclear fuels symposiums and conferences," Dutton said.

Revankar said the new fuel might be used in existing nuclear power reactors, in addition to  next-generation reactors.

"Such multioxide fuels are more efficient and require changing fuel rods less frequently," Revankar said. "Although today's oxide fuels are very stable and safe, a major problem is that they do not conduct heat well, limiting the power and causing fuel pellets to crack and degrade prematurely, necessitating replacement before the fuel has been entirely used. The beryllium oxide is like a heat pipe that sucks the heat out and helps to more efficiently cool the fuel pellet. If you can operate at a lower temperature, you can use the fuel pellets for a longer time, burning up more of the fuel, which is very important from an economic point of view. Lower temperatures also mean safer, more flexible reactor operation."

Existing work by Revankar and Solomon has shown that an advanced UO2–BeO nuclear fuel could potentially save billions of dollars annually by lasting longer and burning more efficiently than conventional nuclear fuels while at the same time dramatically impacting the demand for beryllium and beryllium oxide. In addition to the cost savings, an advanced UO2–BeO nuclear fuel also could contribute significantly to the operational safety of both current and future nuclear reactors due to its superior thermal conductivity and associated decrease in risks of overheating or meltdown.

Purdue led the early research into UO2–BeO fuel, which is intended to solve the inherent problem of low thermal conductivity of existing UO2 fuel. The low thermal conductivity leads to a large temperature gradient across the fuel pellet, which limits the operational performance of nuclear reactors due to thermal stresses that cause pellet cladding interaction and the release of fission product gases.

An enhanced thermal conductivity UO2–BeO fuel would decrease maximum fuel temperatures and facilitate a reduction in pellet cladding interaction through lessening thermal stresses that result in fuel cracking, relocation and swelling. Additionally, fission gas release would be decreased to allow for higher fuel burn-up and reactor safety would be greatly improved with a faster thermal response and less stored energy in the fuel pins.

 About International Beryllium Corp.

 International Beryllium Corp. is a global exploration, development and manufacturing company focused on beryllium, beryllium oxides and beryllium master alloys. Beryllium and related alloys are used in a broad range of specialized industrial applications such as nuclear power, defense, electronics and automotive. International Beryllium's common shares are traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol IB.

To the Purdue Research Park, https://www.purdueresearchpark.co

Writers: Emil Venere, (765) 494-4709, venere@purdue.edu

Cynthia Sequin, (765) 494-4192, casequin@prf.org

Sources: Anthony Dutton, (604) 689-1515 ext 111,  adutton@internationalberyllium.com

Shripad Revankar, (765) 496-1782, shripad@purdue.edu