Integrated Pilot Plant for a Large Cold Crucible Induction Melter
COGEMA has been vitrifying high-level liquid waste produced during nuclear fuel reprocessing on an industrial scale for over 20 years, with two main objectives: containment of the long lived fission products and reduction of the final volume of waste. Research performed by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) in the 1950s led to the selection of borosilicate glass as the most suitable containment matrix for waste from spent nuclear fuel and to the development of the induction melter technology. This was followed by the commissioning of the Marcoule Vitrification Facility (AVM) in 1978. The process was implemented at a larger scale in the late 1980s in the R7 and T7 facilities of the La Hague reprocessing plant. COGEMA facilities have produced more than 11,000 high level glass canisters, representing more than 4,500 metric tons of glass and 4.5 billion curies. To further improve the performance of the vitrification lines in the R7 and T7 facilities, the CEA and COGEMA have been developing the Cold Crucible Melter (CCM) technology since the 1980s. This technology benefits from the 20 years of COGEMA HLW vitrification experience and ensures a virtually unlimited equipment service life and extensive flexibility in dealing with different types of waste. The high specific power directly transferred by induction to the melt allows high operating temperatures without any impact on the process equipment. In addition, the mechanical stirring of the melter significantly reduces operating constraints. COGEMA is already providing the CCM technology to international customers for nuclear and non-nuclear applications and plans to implement it in the La Hague vitrification plant for the vitrification of highly concentrated and corrosive solutions produced by uranium/molybdenum fuel reprocessing. The paper presents the CCM project that led to the building and start-up of this evolutionary and flexible pilot plant. It also describes the plant's technical characteristics and reports commissioning results.
- Research Organization:
- COGEMA 2, rue Paul Dautier BP 4 78141 Velizy Cedex (FR); SGN 1 rue des Herons - Montigny le Bretonneux 78182 Saint Quentin en Yvelines Cedex (FR); CEA - Valrho BP171 30207 Bagnols-Sur-Seze Cedex (FR)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- none (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 828356
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Waste Management 2002 Symposium, Tucson, AZ (US), 02/24/2002--02/28/2002; Other Information: PBD: 26 Feb 2002
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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