Plant-scale anodic dissolution of unirradiated IFR fuel pins

Conference · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:10182149

Gay, E C; Tomczuk, Z; Miller, W E

This report discusses anodic dissolution which is a major operation in the pyrometallurgical process for recycling spent metal fuels from the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR), an advanced reactor design developed at Argonne National Laboratory. This process involves electrorefining the heavy metals (uranium and plutonium) from chopped, steel-clad fuel segments. The heavy metals are electrotransported from anodic dissolution baskets to solid and liquid cathodes in a molten salt electrolyte (LiCl-KCI) at 500{degrees}C. Uranium is recovered on a solid cathode mandrel, while a uranium-plutonium mixture is recovered in a liquid cadmium cathode. The anode configuration consists of four baskets mounted on an anode shaft. These baskets provide parallel circuits in the electrolyte and salt flow through the chopped fuelbed as the baskets are rotated. The baskets for the engineering-scale tests were sized to contain up to 2.5 kg of heavy metal. Anodic dissolution of 10 kg batches of chopped, steel-clad simulated tuel (U-10% Zr and U-Zr-Fs alloy) was demonstrated.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 10182149
• Report Number(s): ANL/CMT/CP--78476; CONF-930913--39; ON: DE93040236
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050800
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
210500
DISSOLUTION
ELECTROREFINING
FUEL PINS
FUEL REPROCESSING PLANTS
IFR REACTOR
MATERIALS RECOVERY
PLUTONIUM
POWER REACTORS
BREEDING
PYROCHEMICAL REPROCESSING
SPENT FUELS
SPENT FUELS REPROCESSING
URANIUM