Separation of Xenon from Krypton in UNF Reprocessing Off-Gas

Conference · Sun Jun 09 04:00:00 EDT 2019

OSTI ID:1963784

Welty, Amy K ^[1]; Greenhalgh, Mitchell ^[1]; Garn, Troy G ^[1]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory

Reprocessing of used nuclear fuel (UNF) results emits several volatile radionuclides that must be removed from the bulk off gas prior to release in order to meet U.S. regulatory emission requirements. After other volatile radionuclides have been removed, krypton (Kr) remains, along with associated with xenon (Xe) in the gas stream. The half-life of Xe is short enough that by the time UNF is sufficiently cooled to be reprocessed Xe is no longer a radiological concern and it may be release to atmosphere or collected for other purposes. Kr, however, must be placed in long term storage. In order to ensure the smallest practical volume for long term storage, the Xe, which is nearly ten times the volume of Kr, must be separated from the Kr. Although cryogenic distillation has been used successfully for this purpose, high capital and operational cost, along with safety considerations, made development of gas adsorption processes for separation of Xe and Kr attractive. INL developed an engineered form sorbent consisting of silver mordenite in a polyacrylonitrile matrix (AgZ-PAN) capable of complete separation of Xe from Kr in a single pass, allowing Kr to be captured downstream with no detectable Xe present.

• 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: 1963784
• Report Number(s): INL/CON-19-52523-Rev000
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
UNF
adsorption
krypton
noble gas
xenon