Application of the gravimetric method to closing the material balance around the chop-leach cell of a spent-fuel reprocessing plant

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1985 · J. Nucl. Mater. Manage.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5482937

Fishbone, L G

For a spent-fuel reprocessing plant handling commercial light-water-reactor fuel, plutonium accounting is traditionally done for the material balance area (MBA) extending from the input accountability tank to the product accountability tank - the process MBA. Consider an MBA comprising the chop-leach cell, with an inward flow consisting of the intact spent-fuel assemblies and outward flows consisting of leached hulls and dissolver solution. Given knowledge of the original uranium mass in the fuel and a measurement of the uranium-plutonium concentration ratio in the dissolver solution, the gravimetric method can be used to determine the amount of plutonium in the spent-fuel assemblies. A measurement of residual plutonium in the leached hulls would then permit the determination of a plutonium material balance for the chop-leach cell alone, since the volumetrically determined plutonium in the input accountability tank yields the plutonium in the flow leaving the chop-leach cell for the process MBA. The uncertainty in the balance can be estimated given the individual measurement uncertainties.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Lab., Technical Support Organization, Upton, NY 11973
• OSTI ID: 5482937
• Report Number(s): CONF-850765-
• Conference Information: Journal Name: J. Nucl. Mater. Manage.; (United States) Journal Volume: 14:3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050800 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
055001* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Safeguards
Inspection
& Accountability-- Technical Aspects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
98 NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT, SAFEGUARDS, AND PHYSICAL PROTECTION
ACCOUNTING
ACTINIDES
BNL
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
CONCENTRATION RATIO
DISPERSIONS
ELEMENTS
ENERGY SOURCES
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUEL REPROCESSING PLANTS
FUELS
GRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS
LEACHATES
MANAGEMENT
MATERIAL BALANCE
MATERIALS
MATERIALS HANDLING
METALS
MIXTURES
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEAR FACILITIES
NUCLEAR FUELS
NUCLEAR MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
PLUTONIUM
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
RADIOMETRIC ANALYSIS
REACTOR COMPONENTS
REACTOR MATERIALS
REACTORS
SOLUTIONS
SPENT FUEL ELEMENTS
SPENT FUELS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
URANIUM
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WATER COOLED REACTORS
WATER MODERATED REACTORS