Mixed oxide project

Since publication of this work, Japanese researchers have undertaken an effort to demonstrate the feasibility of direct dissolution of U02 from spent nuclear fuels by the TBP-HN03 complex in SC-C02.49 Ultimately, the project is directed at the extraction of both uranium and plutonium from mixed oxide fuels and from irradiated nuclear fuel. Ideally, soluble uranyl and plutonium nitrate complexes will form and dissolve in the C02 phase, leaving the FPs as unwanted solids. As in the conventional... 

The projected installed nuclear electric capacity through the year 2000 is shown in Figure 1. The total installed nuclear capacity is expected to rise from 5.9 GW at the end of 1970 to 102 GW in 1980 and to 1200 GW in the year 2000. This represents 1.7%, 15%, and 54%, respectively, of the nation s total electric generating capacity in those years. In this projection, the greatest proportion of the nuclear capacity is contributed by LWRs. Plutonium, in the form of mixed plutonium and uranium oxide fuels, is recycled in LWRs beginning in 1977, and these mixed oxide fuels represent about 10% of all LWR fuels through the year 2000. HTGRs come on-stream in 1980. The LMFBRs go on-stream in 1987, and constitute almost 200,000 MW of installed capacity by the end of the century. 

The higher GHSV that can be achieved with the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) copper/mixed oxide translates into a 20% reduetion in the WGS eatalyst volume compared with the commercial catalysts. The projected size, weight, and cost of copper/mixed oxide catalyst for an automotive fuel processor are 0.15 liter/kilowatt electric (L/kWe),... 

Applicability of SFE to nuclear fuel reprocessing has been proposed by Smart and Wai et al. (17, 18). We have developed a new process which employs a high pressure mixture of TBP-HNO3-H2O-CO2 as is described in this chapter and this approach has indicated a very efEcient extraction of uranium from UO2. Now, the nuclear industries have paid attention to the applications of SFE to future processes. In Japan, we have started a four-year project with nuclear plant construction companies to demonstrate uranium and plutonium extraction from a mixed oxide fuel using the high pressure mixture. On the other hand, uranium and plutonium will be extracted from the irradiated nuclear fuel with TBP(HN03)i.s(H20)o.6 in the same project. 

The European participants were questioned as to how they could be involved in a bilateral nuclear materials safety program. They had stated the proposed nuclear materials safety interactions would be beneficial to them. The most obvious contributions were that the Europeans could host site visits and tours in their operating plutonium facilities and discuss the safety systems and methods of actual operating plants. They could also support the attendance of their experts at future meetings on nuclear materials safety. It was suggested that the French-German-Russian trilateral mixed oxide fuel (MOX) project could be used as a possible way to initiate and involve the United States and remaining European parties. 

The main activity of the project in this period has been to examine the feasibility of a Pu-consuming core compatible with the EFR primary circuit design. It uses mixed-oxide fuel with high Pu enrichment, but compatible with current fabrication and reprocessing technology. The UK work was mainly theoretical, in the areas of reactor physics and performance, reactor safety, and fuel performance, and was done by AEA Technology and NNC peisonnel. It is reported in the CAPRA Feasibility Report, and in papers to the two CAPRA seminars, at Cadarache in March 1994 and Karlsruhe in September 1994. 

This section presents a summary and comparison of four different projects carried out at Leverhulme Centre for Innovative Catalysis, University of Liverpool, UK on propane (amm)oxidation over Mo-V-Sb-Nb mixed oxides, V- and W-modified Keggin structure HPCs and Ga exchanged H-ZSM-5. These three examples represent the main groups of catalytic materials for propane oxidation to acrylic acid (see Section 13.3). The results, which will be discussed here, on the effect of the different redox and acid-base properties on the reaction, aim at bringing further insight into the catalytic transformation of propane. Introduction of steam or ammonia to the propane oxygen mixture over some of the catalysts is demonstrated to be a crucial parameter for more selective reaction. 

The purpose of this chapter is to examine in the greatest detail possible the effects of oxidant air pollutants on ecosystems. A project is now going on to study the effects on a mixed-conifer forest ecosystem in southern California, and the planning documents and early results from this study constitute the major source of information for the remainder of this chapter. Other examples of damage to agroecosystems and natural ecosystems are included. 

According to the vendor, this project could provide a compact, low-cost reactor to treat aqueous mixed waste streams containing nitrates or nitrites, eliminate the need for chemical reagents, and minimize or eliminate secondary wastes such as nitrous oxide and secondary products such as ammonia, H2, and O2 that are prevalent with other nitrate destruction processes. By removing nitrates and nitrites from waste streams before they are sent to high-temperature thermal destruction and vitrification, production of NO can be decreased with the attendant decrease in off-gas system requirements. Biocatalytic nitrate destruction is applicable to a wide range of aqueous wastes with a highly variable composition. All information is from the vendor and has not been independently verified. 

A determined search for superconductivity in metallic oxides was initiated in mid-summer of 1983 at the IBM, Zurich Research Laboratories in Riischliken, Switzerland. This research effort was an extension of previous work (145) on oxides, namely, Sr1.xCaxTiOs, which exhibited some unusual structural and ferro-electric transitions (see Section 2.2a). During the summer of 1983, the superconductivity research was focussed on copper-oxide compounds. Muller had projected the need for mixed Cu2+/Cu3+ valence states, Jahn-Teller interactions (associated with Cu2+ ions), and the presence of room temperature metallic conductivity to generate good superconductor candidates. These researchers then became aware of the publication by Michel, Er-Rakho, and Raveau (146) entitled ... 

Direct Oxidation. Direct oxidation of petroleum hydrocarbons has been practiced on a small scale since 1926 methanol, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde are produced. A much larger project (29) began operating in 1945. The main product of the latter operation is acetic acid, used for the manufacture of cellulose acetate rayon. The oxidation process consists of mixing air with a butane-propane mixture and passing the compressed mixture over a catalyst in a tubular reaction furnace. The product mixture includes acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, acetone, propyl and butyl alcohols, methyl ethyl ketone, and propylene oxide and glycols. The acetaldehyde is oxidized to acetic acid in a separate plant. Thus the products of this operation are the same as those (or their derivatives) produced by olefin hydration and other aliphatic syntheses. 

ABSTRACT Calcium-enriched bio-oil (CEB) can be used for flue gas desulfurisation in coal and waste combustion chambers. It is produced by mixing biomass derived fast pyrolysis oil with calcium oxide. The aim of the proposed project is to develop a technology i) to produce calcium-enriched bio-oil with a calcium content of 13 wt,%, and ii) to test the CEB in a combustion chamber by co-firing it with a sufur-containing fuel. In this paper the production method of CEB will be elucidated, and small-scale experiments related to CEB spraying will be presented. Finally, co-combustion experiments of a sulfur-containing fuel with CEB in a small flame tunnel (20 kW, ) will be reported. 

The projections are based on a recent forecast (Case B) by the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) of nuclear power growth in the United States (2) and on fuel mass-flow data developed for light water reactors fueled with uranium (LWR-U) or mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (LWR-Pu), a high temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), and two liquid-metal-cooled fast breeder reactors (LMFBRs). Nuclear characteristics of the fuels and wastes were calculated using the computer code ORIGEN (3). 

The lack of any evidence of bacterial activity at any of the test sites may be related to several factors. The bacterial oxidation of sulfur reportedly can occur from about 4 to 55°C (39-131°F) with the most favorable temperatures being between 27 and 40°C (80-104°F). Thus, the temperature at the test locations was not conducive to bacterial activity. Bacterial oxidation of sulfur has been shown (2) to increase with decreasing sulfur particle size and is enhanced by mixing the sulfur with soil to improve the soil-sulfur contact. However, sulfur foams and sulfur coatings are massive forms of sulfur and do not have good soil-sulfur contact. Finally, the additives used in preparing the foams and the coatings may have had some bactericidal influence which could not be identified under the constraints of this project. 

The project goals are to significantly improve both the kinetic performance of the electrocatalyst powder at low noble metal loading and its utilization in the cathode layers through layer structure development. Limitations in the catalyst performance will be addressed through combinatorial discovery of supported catalyst compositions and microstructures. The discovery of these new catalyst formulations will be carried out under conditions that have been scaled for commercial powder production. A large variation of binary, ternary and quaternary noble metal -transition metal alloys and mixed metal-metal oxide catalyst compositions will be screened. To improve the utilization/performance of the catalyst in MEAs,... 

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