Technetium in the nuclear fuel cycle

After extraction of pertechnetate with TBP in n-dodecane, the uranium in the cycle may contain about 0.1 wt% of that Tc which originally occurred in the spent fuel [6, 

Because of restrictions on impurities of recycled uranium, it is required that the 

For operation of the model reactor, the input of uranium to the model plant converting UO2 to UF6 is assumed to be 182 t of natural uranium which is processed to about 270 t of UFe- 13.2 wt% of 270 t of UFf, is from uranium recycled back to the system. As mentioned above, 0.14 kg of Tc per reactor year is returned with uranium to the fuel cycle, where it reacts with fluorine to give TcF6. An estimate of the source term for Tc released to the atmosphere and to water can be formed by assuming that TcFfi is released to each pathway in the same fraction of fluoride appearing in the effluent to the total fluoride used in the process 6]. The total amount of fluoride used in the model plant for fluorination is at least 270 t of UFV, minus 182 t of uranium, i. c. 88 t. Releases of fluoride to water account for 0.22 t and to the atmosphere for 0.11 t per model reactor year. (Consequently, it may be assumed that the fraction 0.22/88 of 

Significant source terms assessed for Tc releases to the environment during the different processes of the nuclear fuel cycle are summarized in Table 4.1.A [6]. The amounts expected to be released per year were calculated on the basis of the model reactor defined at the beginning of Section 4.1. The total release via effluent water 

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K. H. Lieser, Technetium in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle, in Medicine and in the Environment, Radio-chim. Acta 63, 5 (1993)... 

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