The IFR pyroprocessing for high-level waste minimization

Conference · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1993 · Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States)

OSTI ID:5694077

Laidler, J J ^[1]

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1. Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)

The process developed for the recycle of integral fast reactor (IFR) spent fuel utilizes a combination of pyrometallurgical and electrochemical methods and has been termed pyroprocessing. The process has been operated at full scale with simulated spent fuel using nonradioactive fission product elements. A comprehensive demonstration of the pyroprocessing of irradiated IFR fuel will begin later this year. Pyroprocessing involves the anodic dissolution of all the constituent elements of the IFR spent fuel and controlled electrotransport (electrorefining) to separate the actinide elements from the fission products present in the spent fuel. The process be applied to the processing of spent light water reactor (LWR) fuel as well, requiring only the addition of a reduction step to convert the LWR fuel as well, requiring only the addition of a reduction step to convert the LWR oxide fuel to metallic form and a separation step to separate uranium from the transuranic (TRU) elements. The TRU elements are then recovered by electroefining in the same manner as the actinides from the IFR high-level wastes arising from pyroprocessing are virtually free of actinides, and the volume of the wastes is minimized by the intrinsic characteristics of the processing of the processing method.

• OSTI ID: 5694077
• Report Number(s): CONF-930601--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: Transactions of the American Nuclear Society; (United States) Journal Volume: 68
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050800 -- Nuclear Fuels-- Spent Fuels Reprocessing
052002* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Waste Disposal & Storage
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
12 MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES
21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS
220600 -- Nuclear Reactor Technology-- Research
Test & Experimental Reactors
ACTINIDE BURNER REACTORS
ENERGY SOURCES
EPITHERMAL REACTORS
EXPERIMENTAL REACTORS
FAST REACTORS
FUELS
HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTES
IFR REACTOR
MANAGEMENT
MATERIALS
MINIMIZATION
NUCLEAR FUELS
PERFORMANCE
PYROCHEMICAL REPROCESSING
RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS
RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL
RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
REACTOR MATERIALS
REACTORS
REPROCESSING
RESEARCH AND TEST REACTORS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SPENT FUELS
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTES
ZERO POWER REACTORS