COGEMA Experience in Uranous Nitrate Preparation
- COGEMA, AREVA Group, Etablissement de La Hague, 50440 Beaumont La Hague Cedex (France)
- SGN, AREVA Group, 1 rue des Herons, 78182 St Quentin Yvelines Cedex (France)
Separation and purification of plutonium by PUREX process is based on a sequence of extraction and back extraction which requires reducing plutonium Pu IV (extractable form) into Pu III (inextractable form) Different reducers can be used to reduce Pu IV into Pu III. Early plants such as that for Magnox fuel at Sellafield used ferrous sulfamate while UP 1 at Marcoule used uranous sulfamate. These reducers are efficient and easy to prepare but generates ferric and/or sulphate ions and so complicates management of the wastes from the plutonium purification cycle. Recent plants such as UP3 and UP2 800 at La Hague, THORP at Sellafield, and RRP at Rokkasho Mura (currently under tests) use uranous nitrate (U IV) stabilized by hydrazinium nitrate (N{sub 2}H{sub 5}NO{sub 3}) and hydroxyl ammonium nitrate (HAN). In the French plants, uranous nitrate is used in U-Pu separation and alpha barrier and HAN is used in Pu purification. Compared to sulfamate, U IV does not generate extraneous chemical species and uranyl nitrate (U VI) generated by reducing Pu IV follows the main uranium stream. More over uranous nitrate is prepared from reprocessed purified uranyl nitrate taken at the outlet of the reprocessing plant. Hydrazine and HAN offer the advantage to be salt-free reagents. Uranous nitrate can be generated either by electrolysis or by catalytic hydrogenation process. Electrolytic process has been implemented in early plant UP 1 at Marcoule (when changing reducer from uranous sulfamate to uranous nitrate) and was used again in UP2 plant at La Hague. However, the electrolytic process presented several disadvantages such as a low conversion rate and problems associated with the use of mercury. Electrolysis cells with no mercury were developed for the Eurochemic plant in Belgium and then implemented in the first Japanese reprocessing plant in Tokai-Mura. But finally, in 1975, the electrolytic process was abandoned in favor of the catalytic hydrogenation process developed at La Hague. The yield of the operation and its simplicity were the main reasons for this choice. Nowadays, our catalytic hydrogenation process is used in all the commercial reprocessing plants worldwide: THORP at Sellafield, UP3 and UP2 800 at La Hague, and RRP at Rokkasho-Mura. In this process, uranyl nitrate is reduced to uranous nitrate by hydrogen in presence of a platinum based catalyst. Most of the plants implement the reaction in the same kind of reactor: 'co-current, up-flow and fixed-bed reactor'. For UP2 800 at La Hague, started in 1994, a new kind of reactor allowing a higher capacity has been developed. In this reactor, the catalyst bed is not fixed but circulating (fluidized bed). The aim of the paper is to describe both reactor technology implemented in La Hague (fixed bed and fluidized bed), to show their performance in terms of capacity and yield and to compare their operating and maintenance principles. (authors)
- Research Organization:
- WM Symposia, Inc., PO Box 13023, Tucson, AZ, 85732-3023 (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 21208628
- Report Number(s):
- INIS-US-09-WM-06130; TRN: US09V0939079415
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2006 Symposium - WM'06 - Global Accomplishments in Environmental and Radioactive Waste Management: Education and Opportunity for the Next Generation of Waste Management Professionals, Tucson, AZ (United States), 26 Feb - 2 Mar 2006; Other Information: Country of input: France; 1 ref
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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