Nuclear Fuels and Reprocessing Technologies: A U.S. Perspective

Technical Report · Mon Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1785124· OSTI ID:1785124

Fredrickson, Guy L. ^[1]; Yoo, Tae-Sic ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Lab. (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)

Reprocessing and/or waste management issues are of concern to the “back end” of the nuclear fuel cycle. Of course, there are a great many “nuclear fuel cycle” scenarios to consider; if not in practice, then at least in theory. The simplest conceptually is the “once through” fuel cycle in which the spent fuel is discarded. The more complex fuel cycle scenarios involve reprocessing spent nuclear fuels and a family of nuclear reactor technologies to accommodate burning and breeding for various military and commercial needs. Therefore, the selection of a specific “fuel cycle” is what ultimately imposes the engineering requirements of the reprocessing and waste management technologies. No one part is independent of the other parts in a fuel cycle flowsheet; all parts are fully integrated. This paper presents a summary of radiochemical processes, nuclear reactor technologies, nuclear fuel types, and the reprocessing technologies that serve the different nuclear fuel types. Comprehending how this series of topics are related to each other is a prerequisite to understanding the requirements of any reprocessing strategy. The summary materials presented here are selective, as opposed to comprehensive. More detailed information on any one subject can be found in the reference materials.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1785124
• Report Number(s): INL/EXT--20-59106
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
aqueous reprocessing
non-aqueous reprocessing
nuclear fuels
pyro-processing
reprocessing