Reprocessing plants Eurochemic

The Eurochemic reprocessing plant, erected by a consortium of 13 European member states of the OECD/NEA, was in active operation between 1966 and 1974. During these campaigns, 181.5 tons of natural and slightly enriched uranium fuels and 30.6 tons of highly enriched aluminum alloy fuels from material testing reactors were reprocessed. 

Note that criticality is not specifically addressed in this reference safety assessment. On one hand, this is due to the low plutonium (Pu) concentrations in the HLLW, the resulting waste feed stream and all downstream liquid, gaseous, and solid waste streams, as is explained in section 4. On the other hand, the total Pu mass in the facility and in particular in the largest equipment components (e.g., the waste feed tank and the melter) is far below the level of any criticality concern. Also recall that the HLLW storage tanks are part of the former Eurochemic reprocessing plant and that these tanks have been considered in the safety analysis of the storage of the HLLW. 

When considering the vitrification of HLLW with higher Pu concentrations, a number of detailed investigations are required to confirm the validity of this option. From the viewpoint of the operator with the available knowhow of the Eurochemic reprocessing plant, these investigations especially relate to a criticality study of the total vitrification plant and to the glass composition and glass product quality. 

Claes, J. and Meyers, H. (1989) The Radioactive Waste Management Programme associated with the Decommissioning of the former Eurochemic Reprocessing Plant, International Conference on Radioactive Waste Management, Kyoto (Japan), October 1989. 

In the sixties hydrazine stabilized U(IV) solutions, electrochemically produced, successfully substituted the traditional corrosive and salt generating ferrous sulfamate C5) reducing agent for the U/Pu separation (e.g. Eurochemic in Mol, Karlsruhe Reprocessing Plant WAK). 

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