Separations Research for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles

摘要

The United States Department of Energy has been conducting research into advanced separation methods for the recycle of used nuclear fuel components for the last decade. Separation of certain used fuel constituents allows for improved waste management (by developing waste forms tailored for specific long-lived radioisotopes) and transmutation of long-lived actinide elements. One incentive for processing used fuel is to reduce the time that the overall radiotoxicity of the used fuel is greater than that of natural uranium ore. Spent fuel must be managed for geologic time scales (300,000+ years) while fuel that is processed to recycle and transmute actinide elements requires management for engineering time scales (hundreds of years). Efficient separation processes are needed for treatment of current light water reactor used fuel and future fast transmutation fuel (metal or oxide). Low process losses and product purity sufficient to meet fuel specifications are needed.