COMPARISON OF COST ESTIMATES FOR THE PROCESSING OF SGR FUELS BY SOLVENT EXTRACTION AND BY HIGH TEMPERATURE METHODS AND A PROPOSAL FOR A HIGH TEMPERATURE PROCESSING EXPERIMENT

Technical Report · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1954

OSTI ID:4824367

Bareis, D W; Foltz, J R; Gardner, W J; Janeves, D; Rosen, F D

Cost estimates were made for plants to process the fuel from a l000-Mw SGR by solvent extraction and hightemperature methods. The estimated capital investment costs were 500,000 for the solvent extraction method and 0,000 for the high-temperature method. The estimated annual costs were 800,000 and 100,000, respectively. The fuel cycle used for the comparison involves the removal of plutonium from the spent fuel and the addition of the plutonium to natural uranium for new fuel. The fuel rcmains in the metallic state throughout the hightemperature process. In the solvent extraction process a final metal reduetion step is necessary which adds to the processing costs of the fuel. Thus, in the fuel cycles in which the bulk of the spent fuel would be recycled, the high-temperature method has an even greater economic advantage. Proposals are presented for a pilot plant for processing various fuel alloys by high- temperature methods. The plant would furnish the necessary engineering data for full-scale plant design, for cost analyses, and for choosing the optimum processing method for a particular fuel. It is estimated that a pilot plant could be built in conjunction with the Sodium Reactor Experiment for 0,000 and operated for an annual cost of 0,000. (auth)

• Research Organization: Atomics International. Div. of North American Aviation, Inc., Canoga Park, Calif.
• DOE Contract Number: AT(11-1)-GEN-8
• NSA Number: NSA-16-004225
• OSTI ID: 4824367
• Report Number(s): NAA-SR-Memo-1035
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ADDITIVES
ALLOYS
BURNUP
CHEMISTRY
ECONOMICS
FUELS
HIGH TEMPERATURE
PLUTONIUM
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
URANIUM