Mobile Melt-Dilute Treatment for Russian Spent Nuclear Fuel

Conference · Tue Sep 17 04:00:00 EDT 2002

OSTI ID:801707

Peacock, H

Treatment of spent Russian fuel using a Melt-Dilute (MD) process is proposed to consolidate fuel assemblies into a form that is proliferation resistant and provides critically safety under storage and disposal configurations. Russian fuel elements contain a variety of fuel meat and cladding materials. The Melt-Dilute treatment process was initially developed for aluminum-based fuels so additional development is needed for several cladding and fuel meat combinations in the Russian fuel inventory (e.g. zirconium-clad, uranium-zirconium alloy fuel). A Mobile Melt-Dilute facility (MMD) is being proposed for treatment of spent fuels at reactor site storage locations in Russia; thereby, avoiding the costs of building separate treatment facilities at each site and avoiding shipment of enriched fuel assemblies over the road. The MMD facility concept is based on laboratory tests conducted at the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC), and modular pilot-scale facilities constructed at the Savannah River Site for treatment of US spent fuel. SRTC laboratory tests have shown the feasibility of operating a Melt-Dilute treatment process with either a closed system or a filtered off-gas system. The proposed Mobile Melt-Dilute process is presented in this paper.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-96SR18500
• OSTI ID: 801707
• Report Number(s): WSRC-MS-2002-00726
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
ALLOYS
FUEL ASSEMBLIES
FUEL ELEMENTS
MEAT
NUCLEAR FUELS
OFF-GAS SYSTEMS
PROLIFERATION
REACTOR SITES
SAFETY
SPENT FUELS
STORAGE