| Project Detail |
The U.S. has accumulated approximately 86,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel (UNF) from light-water reactors (LWRs), a value that increases by approximately 2,000 tons per year. This UNF is destined for permanent disposal even though more than 90% of its energy remains. Innovative technologies that enable the secure, economical reprocessing of the nation’s LWR UNF could substantially reduce the volume, heat load, and radiotoxicity of waste requiring permanent disposal while providing a valuable and sustainable fuel feedstock for advanced fast reactors. CURIE seeks to research innovative separations technologies, material accountancy, and online monitoring technologies, as well as designs for a reprocessing facility that will enable group recovery of actinides for advanced reactor (AR) feedstocks, incorporate in situ process monitoring, minimize waste volumes, enable a 1¢/kilowatt-hour (kWh) fuel cost for AR fuels, and maintain disposal costs in the range of 0.1¢/kWh.
Project Innovation + Advantages:
The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) will research a single-step technology to recycle UNF by recovering the bulk of uranium (U) and other transuranics (TRU) from fission products. After dissolution of UNF in nitric acid, U/TRU is simultaneously separated from fission products by co-crystallizing oxidized TRU with uranyl nitrate hexahydrate. The approach is inherently proliferation resistant, as plutonium-only streams cannot be achieved without implementing additional technologies. In addition, the overall reprocessing facility footprint would be significantly smaller, secondary waste would be substantially reduced, and hazards associated with using bulk quantities of organic materials would be eliminated. UAB will also research an online monitoring strategy for this process using sensor fusion of various spectroscopic techniques. The single-cycle process researched in this project will (1) significantly reduce the volume of light-water reactor high-level radioactive waste that requires permanent disposal, (2) provide an appropriate fuel feedstock by combining U/TRU in a single product stream, (3) reduce fission product content in the product stream to <0.1%, and (4) be compatible with online monitoring technologies. |
