A CONCEPTUAL STUDY OF A FLUORIDE VOLATILITY PLANT FOR REPROCESSING LIGHT WATER REACTOR FUELS

摘要

This report presents an engineering evaluation of a fluoride volatility process for recovery of uranium and plutonium from spent low-enrichment nuclear power reactor fuels. The study was initiated in 1966 at the re¬quest of the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission, Division of Reactor Develop¬ment and Technology, with two primary goals in mind. First, it was important to obtain guidance on the question of volatility process eco¬nomics as applied to power reactor fuels;and second, an independent assessment of the technological feasibility of the process extrapolated to plant scale was considered desirable. The plant throughput was assumed to be 300 tonnes of uranium per year, which is the expected processing load required for newly constructed and planned nuclear power reactors for the early part of the 1970s.