EBR-II spent fuel treatment demonstration project

Conference · Mon Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1997

OSTI ID:554790

Benedict, R W; Henslee, S P ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab.-West, Idaho Falls, ID (United States). Reactor Program Services Div.

For approximately 10 years, Argonne National Laboratory was developed a fast reactor fuel cycle based on dry processing. When the US fast reactor program was canceled in 1994, the fuel processing technology, called the electrometallurgical technique, was adapted for treating unstable spent nuclear fuel for disposal. While this technique, which involves electrorefining fuel in a molten salt bath, is being developed for several different fuel categories, its initial application is for sodium-bonded metallic spent fuel. In June 1996, the Department of Energy (DOE) approved a radiation demonstration program in which 100 spent driver assemblies and 25 spent blanket assemblies from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) will be treated over a three-year period. This demonstrated will provide data that address issues in the National Research Council`s evaluation of the technology. The planned operations will neutralize the reactive component (elemental sodium) in the fuel and produce a low enriched uranium product, a ceramic waste and a metal waste. The fission products and transuranium elements, which accumulate in the electrorefining salt, will be stabilized in the glass-bonded ceramic waste form. The stainless steel cladding hulls, noble metal fission products, and insoluble residues from the process will be stabilized in a stainless steel/zirconium alloy. Upon completion of a successful demonstration and additional environmental evaluation, the current plans are to process the remainder of the DOE sodium bonded fuel.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 554790
• Report Number(s): ANL/RA/SUMM--94729; CONF-971125--; ON: DE98001315
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
EBR-2 REACTOR
ELECTROREFINING
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
REPROCESSING
SLIGHTLY ENRICHED URANIUM
SPENT FUELS
WASTE FORMS