Recycle of scrap plutonium-238 oxide fuel to support future radioisotope applications
The Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory has initiated a development program to recover and purify plutonium-238 oxide from impure feed sources in a glove box environment. A glove box line has been designed and a chemistry flowsheet developed to perform this recovery task at large scale. The initial demonstration effort focused on purification of {sup 238}PuO{sub 2} fuel by HNO{sub 3}/HF dissolution, followed by plutonium(III) oxalate precipitation and calcination to an oxide. Decontamination factors for most impurities of concern in the fuel were very good, producing {sup 238}PuO{sub 2} fuel significantly better in purity than specified by General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) fuel powder specifications. The results are encouraging for recycle of relatively impure plutonium-238 oxide and scrap residue items into fuel for useful applications. A sufficient quantity of purified {sup 238}PuO{sub 2} fuel was recovered from the process to allow fabrication of a GPHS unit for testing. The high specific activity of plutonium-238 magnifies the consequences and concerns of radioactive waste generation. This work places an emphasis on development of waste minimization technologies to complement the aqueous processing operation. Results from experiments allowing more time for neutralized solutions of plutonium-238 to precipitate resulted in decontamination to about 1 millicurie/L. Combining ultrafiltration treatment with addition of a water-soluble polymer designed to coordinate Pu, allowed solutions to be decontaminated to about 1 microcurie/L. Efforts continue to develop a capability for efficient, safe, cost-effective, and environmentally acceptable methods to recover and purify {sup 238}PuO{sub 2} fuel.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 650271
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR-97-4292; CONF-980103-; ON: DE98002663; TRN: 98:009897
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Space technology and applications international forum, Albuquerque, NM (United States), 25-29 Jan 1998; Other Information: PBD: Nov 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Recycle of scrap plutonium-238 oxide fuel to support future radioisotope applications
Development program to recycle and purify plutonium-238 oxide fuel from scrap