La Hague

Fuel Dissolution. In the American and British plants, LWR fuel pieces typically fall directly from the shear into a dissolver basket, which fits inside the dissolver vessel. A soluble poison such as gadolinium is added to the nitric acid to prevent criticahty. The massive end fittings are sometimes separated from the fuel pieces before the latter enter the dissolver. The French have installed continuous rotary dissolvers in the UP3 and UP2-800 plants at La Hague. The units each consist of a dmm rotating within a geometrically favorable slab tank (13). 

Fig. 8. Variation with location of the mean levels of "Tc in samples of Fucus serrantus bioindicators along the French coast of the English Channel. The discharge outlet at the La Hague reprocessing plant is shown by an arrow. (Reprinted with permission from Ref. 43. Copyright (1987) Elsevier Science Ltd)...

Composition (in wt%) reprocessing of commercial LWR fuel at La Hague Savannah River Site commercial SNF plutonium plutonium reprocessing of SNF from water-water energetic reactors... 

Glass of this composition will be returned to Sweden after repro-jCessing at the French site at La Hague... 

Many variants of the Purex (Plutonium Uranium Reduction Extraction) process23S based on TBP extraction have been developed but a basic outline flowsheet is illustrated in Figure 38. This shows the so-called early split flowsheet most commonly used in existing plants. It involves the separation of the uranium and plutonium using two different back-extractant streams during the first solvent extraction cycle. Additional solvent extraction cycles are then carried out independently on the uranium and plutonium streams to effect further purification. An alternative arrangement is the iate split flowsheet used at the Cap La Hague plant in France, and the... 

Drain, F., Moulin, J.P., Gillet, B. 2000. Advanced solvent management in the La Hague reprocessing plants. AIChE Spring Meeting, March 5-9, Atlanta, GA. 

Two systems based on crown-calixarenes, able to be used in liquid-liquid extraction process were chosen. Both systems use a modifier in the organic phase to avoid the occurrence of a third phase in the TPH (diluent used at the reprocessing plant of la Hague for the PUREX process) and ensure a sufficient cesium extraction. 

AVH [Atelier de Vitrification de la Hague] A process for immobilizing nuclear waste, operated at La Hague, France, based on the earlier AVM process. Used also in the THORP nuclear reprocessing plant at Sellafield, UK. 

AVM [Atelier de Vitrification de Marcoule] A continuous process for immobilizing radioactive waste by incorporation in a borosilicate glass. Developed at Marcoule, France, from 1972, based on the earlier PIVER process. In 1988, two larger vitrification plants were being designed for installation at La Hague, France. See AVH. 

Purex [Plutonium and uranium recovery by extraction] A process for the solvent extraction of plutonium from solutions of uranium and fission products, obtained by dissolving spent nuclear fuel elements in nitric acid. The solvent is tri- -butyl phosphate (TBP) in kerosene. First operated by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission at its Savannah River plant, SC, in 1954 and at Hanford, WA, in 1956. Now in operation, with modifications, in several countries. Sites include Savannah River (SC), Cap de la Hague (France), Marcoule (France), Sellafield (England), Karlsruhe (Germany), and Trombay (India). See also Recuplex. 

Plants in the UK, USSR and France are now reprocessing irradiated UO2/PUO2 fuels and LMFBR fuel reprocessing has been the subject of international conferences. " The plant at Cap la Hague, France, employs a 30% TBP solution and no U/Pu separation is undertaken, so that a mixed U/Pu product is obtained. Fluoride is added to the process feed to complex zirconium and suppress its extraction." The Dounreay plant in the UK employs a 20% TBP/OK solution and uses sulfuric acid to effect the U/Pu separation. TBP poorly extracts Pu or U from sulfuric acid solutions, but in mixed HNO3/H2SO4 the equilibria shown in equations (206) and (207) must be considered. The equilibrium constants for these reactions, Kj, and K i, are given... 

Figure 10.3 Cogema reprocessing plant at La Hague, France. (With permission of Cogema.)... 

Cl2. Commissariat a I Energie Atomique Irradiated Fuel Reprocessing, La Hague Center,... 

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