Spent-Fuel Reprocessing

It is desirable to install specially designed reprocessing equipment behind massive concrete shielding (sometimes as much as 1.5 m thick) to protect personnel from 

Currently, no commercially available conditioning service is being offered to third countries. 3.2. SPENT FUEL REPROCESSING 

---

Hafnium neutron absorption capabilities have caused its alloys to be proposed as separator sheets to allow closer spacing of spent nuclear fuel rods in interim holding ponds. Hafnium is the preferred material of constmction for certain critical mass situations in spent fuel reprocessing plants where hafnium s excellent corrosion resistance to nitric acid is also important. 

The fact that spent fuel reprocessing and recycle are essential components ofgood nuclear non-proliferation and radioactive waste management practices. These actions are needed so that more efficient use can be made offissionablc materials, and unwanted radioactive fission products can be disposed of without need for permanent safeguards. In addition, potential weapons usable materials are destroyed through beneficial use. 

Spent fuel reprocessed one-year after reactor discharge. 

Because the concentration of "Tc in sea water is usually very low, there have been only limited reliable data, except for those cases in which the "Tc concentration is relatively high due to the release of nuclear waste from spent fuel reprocessing plants. However, the advent of highly sensitive detection by ICP-MS has changed this situation. 

Status and Trends in Spent Fuel Reprocessing, IAEA, September 2005. IAEA-TECDOC-1467. 

Asakura, T., Sato, M., Matsumura, M., Morita, Y. 1999. Simulation code of chemical separation process of spent fuel reprocessing Tool for process development and safety research. Proc. 2nd NUCEF Intern. Symp. NUCEF 98. JAERI Report. JAERI-Conf 99-004 Part I. 

Shimada, T., Ogumo, S., Ishihara, N., Kosaka, Y., Mori, Y. 2002. A study on the technique of spent fuel reprocessing with supercritical fluid direct extraction method (Super-DIRECT method). J. Nucl. Sci. Technol. Suppl. 3 757-760. 

Status and Trends of Spent Fuel Reprocessing, IAEA TECDOC-1103 (1999). 

Ramanujam, A. Venkataraman, N. Spent fuel reprocessing, In Facets of Nuclear Science and Technology, S.K. Aggarwal and D.D. Sood (Eds.), Department of Atomic Energy, Mumbai, India (1996), pp. 137-147. 

Washiya, T., H. Ogino, and A. Aoshima. 2000. Development of a Centrifugal Contactor for Fast Reactor Spent Fuel Reprocessing. ATALANTE 2000, October 24-26, Avignon, France. 

Radioactive wastes of concern include wastes that result from operation of the nuclear fuel cycle (mining, fuel fabrication, reactor operation, spent fuel reprocessing, and waste storage), from nuclear weapons testing, and from medical and research activities. In recent years, the emphasis has been on predicting the behavior of disposed high-level wastes in deep geologic... 

The major use of C1F3 is in the nuclear industry which converts unclean spent fuel reprocessing, uranium metal into gaseous uranium hexafluoride. Other applications are low temperature etchant for single crystalline silicon [63,64], It is also used as a fluorinating reagent and in the synthesis of GIF and conversion of metals to metal fluorides such as tantalum and niobium metals to tantalum pentafluoride and niobium pentafluoride, respectively. 

Navratil, J.D., Ion exchange technology in spent fuel reprocessing,... 

Alpha-bearing wastes (also called transuranic, plutonium-contaminated material, or alpha wastes) include wastes that are contaminated with enough long-lived, alpha-emitting nuclides to make near-surface disposal unacceptable. They arise principally from spent fuel reprocessing and mixed-oxide fuel fabrication. The wastes may he disposed of in a similar manner to HLW. 

Delange, M. LWR Spent Fuel Reprocessing at Ixi Hagie Ten Years On, Proc. Ini. Conf. Nucl. Fuel Reprocess. 

The potentially desirable attributes that justify the development and application of PDPM processes to spent fuel reprocessing under current nonproliferation policies are summarized as follows ... 

Irvine, A. R., and Jones, F. J., "LMFBR Spent Fuel Reprocessing A Study of an Industrial-Scale Facility," Report... 

The fast-spectrum reactors with full recycle of actinides would be designed with on-site spent fuel reprocessing and fuel fabrication to minimize the on-site inventory of long-lived radioactive waste. Modern robotic equipment can be used for reactor refueling and for fuel reprocessing. The spent fuel reprocessing and fuel fabrication facilities must be developed to close the nuclear fuel cycle and use all the energy available in natural uranium. 

Figure 13.19 Water-dilution volumes for radionuclides in spent-fuel reprocessing wastes formed by operating a l-GW( -) pressurized-water reactor for one year, plotted as a function of decay time. After J. Choi and H. Pigford, Water dilution volumes for high-level wastes, ANS Transactions 39, p. 176. Copyright 1981 by the American Nuclear Society,...

M. SPENT FUEL REPROCESSED, URANiUM AND PLUTONiUM RECYCLED Recovered Pu, 445 kg... 

Bond, W. D., and R. E. Leuze Feasibility Studies of the Partitioning of Commercial High-Level Wastes Generated in Spent Fuel Reprocessing, Report ORNL-5012, 1975. Bonniaud, R. Continuous Vitrification in France Taken to Industrial Plant Scale, Auci Eng. Int. 21 67-69 (Nov. 1976). 

A single partitioning of a compound between an organic solvent and water may not be sufficient for isolating it in acc tably pure form and good yield. Various multiple extraction techniques may therefore be required. Such techniques have been described in 21.6.4 and their technical application for uranium production ( 5.5.3) and spent fuel reprocessing ( 21.6.3). 

---