Voloxidation process

Tritium differs from the noble gases. Tritium is very reactive and readily combines to form water. The voloxidation process, which controls the point at which the oxidation occurs and recovers the resulting tritiated water, has been developed. As of this writing it has not yet been used. 

The behavior of volatile fission products is largely unknown. Brief literature references to iodine and ruthenium are contradictory. It is likely that elemental iodine is the stable species in the melt (16 ), and that some will be volatilized. Possible process modifications to guarantee a unique path for ruthenium have not been considered. The rare gases should escape because of the elevated temperature crystal modification. However, experience with the voloxidation process suggests that this release may not be complete. The behavior of both Kr-85 and tritium must thus be investigated. 

Voloxidation A process for removing volatile fission products and tritium from irradiated nuclear fuel in advance of other processing. Being developed from 2004 at the Argonne National Laboratory. 

Although promising data have been acquired for the fluoride volatility process, the technical feasibility has not been demonstrated yet. Aside from chemical problems, many technological problems such as process stability due to powder handling and remote maintenance, are still remained unsolved. In order to solve these problems, head-end process studies as voloxidation have been started. Here, stress is put on the environmental protection of... 

Another approach is a suitable head-end process in the reprocessing plant, such as voloxidation (Chap. 10, Sec. 4.3). However, such a head-end process is not yet available technology but requires several more years of development. 

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