Projected Salt Waste Production from a Commercial Pyroprocessing Facility

Abstract

Pyroprocessing of used nuclear fuel inevitably produces salt waste from electrorefining and/or oxide reduction unit operations. Various process design characteristics can affect the actual mass of such waste produced. This paper examines both oxide and metal fuel treatment, estimates the amount of salt waste generated, and assesses potential benefit of process options to mitigate the generation of salt waste. For reference purposes, a facility is considered in which 100 MT/year of fuel is processed. Salt waste estimates range from 8 to 20 MT/year from considering numerous scenarios. It appears that some benefit may be derived from advanced processes for separating fission products from molten salt waste, but the degree of improvement is limited. Waste form production is also considered but appears to be economically unfavorable. Direct disposal of salt into a salt basin type repository is found to be the most promising with respect to minimizing the impact of waste generation on the economic feasibility and sustainability of pyroprocessing.

Engineering Design of a Mechanical Decladder for Spent Nuclear Rod-Cuts

“…is technology has been making considerable progress since it was proposed in the late 1990s by the KAERI. e main objectives of pyroprocessing are to reduce the heat load, radioactivity, and volume of processed spent fuel by removing heat-generating elements and transforming oxide fuel into metal fuel for disposal and/or recycling [11]. e head-end process consists of three main processes: mechanical decladding, voloxidation, and compaction [12].…”

Alpha spectroscopy for in situ liquid radioisotope measurements in rectangular microchannels

“…For all cases, the source liquid was modeled as a LiCl-KCl eutectic with the density corresponding to a temperature of 500°C [9]. This corresponds to a typical salt in an electrorefiner [2]. A volumetrically uniform isotropic source of alpha particles was distributed according to the geometry in each of the cases, with d = 1 lm for Case B or l w ¼ 1; 5; or 10 lm for Case C. The values for d and l w that were chosen are appropriately small, but achievable, using common processing techniques in the semiconductor industry.…”

“…In nuclear fuel treatment facilities, real-time, in situ monitoring is a pressing need. Examples of fuel treatment processes include aqueous processing at the La Hague plant in France [1], and pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuel currently being investigated at Idaho National Laboratory [2]. Aqueous processing is maintained at temperatures above 50°C, a temperature beyond which Si-based detectors experience degraded resolution [3].…”

“…The mathematical expressions for the energy spectra are compared with the results of simulations using the code package SRIM-The stopping and range of ions in matter [6] for source activities, energies, and materials that are relevant for pyroprocessing in a molten salt, which is maintained at about 500°C in the Mk. V electrorefiner at Idaho National Laboratory [2].…”

Thermodynamic Properties of Strontium-Bismuth Alloys Determined by Electromotive Force Measurements

“…However, the process has the inevitable consequence of accumulating alkali/alkaline-earth fission products in the molten salt electrolyte because alkali/alkaline-earth metals (Ba, Sr, and Cs) have the strongest tendency to oxidize during electrolysis. Periodic replacement of the electrolyte containing these fission products results in chloride wastes that can limit the development of a ceramic wasteform for long-term disposal and increase the volume of nuclear waste [2]. In addition, the alkali/alkaline fission products Sr and Cs pose serious environmental challenges as they have short half-lives (around 30 years) and highest heat densities [3].…”