| Project Detail |
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) will research an electrochemical oxide reduction (OR) process that meets CURIE’s cost and waste metrics for a pyroprocessing facility. Electrochemical OR is a single-step process that converts used oxide fuels to metal that can be electrorefined to produce uranium/transuranic (U/TRU) alloys suitable for fabrication into advanced reactor fuels. However, current process inefficiencies result in non-uniform and incomplete conversion to metal, long process times, and large waste volumes. ANL will address these inefficiencies by research a highly efficient OR process with 97% conversion of the oxide fuel to metal by incorporating sensors to monitor oxide-to-metal conversion, using stable and efficient next-generation anode materials, and optimizing cell designs to achieve spatially uniform conversion to metal. This optimized OR process could help reduce waste volumes 10X compared with other conversion processes. ANL will also research an integrated waste disposal plan to economically dispose of pyroprocessing wastes in deep boreholes and an optimized plan for using the existing LWR UNF supply in a pyroprocessing facility to produce U/TRU alloys suitable for advanced reactor fuel fabrication.
Potential Impact:
By enabling the secure and economical recycling of the nation’s inventory of LWR UNF, CURIE will have the following impacts: |
