Development efforts toward an advanceddry head end for the processing of U.S. spentnuclear fuel are under way and include previousexperiences and laboratory-scale experiments.The overall objectives include the separation ofthe hardware and cladding (with the minimumdegree of retained contamination) and the earlyremoval of the volatile (e.g., 3H, Kr, Xe, I,Br,14C) and semivolatile fission products(e.g., Cs, Rb, Ru, Tc, Mo, and Te), minoractinides (Am and Cm), and rare earths. Oncedeveloped, these processes should maximizerecycle and reduce overall processing and wastedisposal costs.
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