Criticality hazards control during metal fuel electrorefining.
Criticality hazards control during electrorefining is concerned with three operations where accumulation of solid nuclear materials may occur. These batch operations are anodic dissolution of fuel, electrotransport of uranium to a solid cathode, and el ectrotransport of uranium-plutonium to a liquid cadmium cathode. In all cases the operation is controlled by electric current flow and total current (integrated current) for the batch. The transport of material follows precise known laws of electrochemistry. The maximum amount transported during any of the three operations is directly proportional to the integrated current for the batch transfer. For normal electrorefining, all nuclear material within the cell, but not in the anode feed or on the solid or liquid cathode, is dissolved in the cell liquids. The distribution and concentration of these materials follow known laws of physical chemistry and their behavior is predictable. In the development of the engineering-scale electrorefiner certain secondary indicators have been correlated to the amount of materials transported. These matters and the overall results of mass tracking of uranium during electrorefiner operations development are discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 10197576
- Report Number(s):
- ANL-IFR-171; 6415
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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