Demonstration of Chemical Decladding and Disposition Options of Non-Al Clad Fuels at the Savannah River Site [Poster]

Technical Report · Wed Oct 03 04:00:00 EDT 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1476262· OSTI ID:1476262

Thompson, Anthony B. ^[1]; Dick, DeWayne ^[1]; Rudisill, Tracy ^[1]; Daniel, Gene ^[1]; Devore, Michael ^[1]; Duff, Martine ^[1]; Tovo, Laura ^[1]; Bronikowski, Michael ^[1]

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1. Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

The Savannah River Site’s H-Canyon processes aluminum-clad fuels from foreign and domestic research reactors to recover enriched uranium. However, there is an extensive inventory of non-Al-clad fuels currently in the storage basin, many of which are damaged or at risk of failure. Most of these are clad with stainless steel or Zircaloy, which are incompatible with H-Canyon’s process chemistry. Development of decladding methods is therefore critical to the waste cleanup mission at SRS. Here we demonstrate the dissolution of stainless steel using the SULFEX process developed at Oak Ridge and the dissolution of Zircaloy using the ZIRFLEX process developed at the Hanford Site. Dissolution and offgassing rates are consistent with previous studies and show that these cladding materials can be processed even below reflux conditions. Waste streams have been treated and quantified, providing valuable information for potential future process development in H-Canyon. This study has demonstrated that the technology may be feasible in the near term for processing smaller damaged fuels in the SRS hot cells.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-08SR22470
• OSTI ID: 1476262
• Report Number(s): SRNL-STI--2018-00572
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE