Benchtop Zone Refinement of Simulated Future Spent Nuclear Fuel Pyroprocessing Waste

Author:

Scrimshire Alex1ORCID,Backhouse Daniel J.1,Deng Wei1,Mann Colleen2,Ogden Mark D.3,Sharrad Clint A.4,Harrison Mike T.5,McKendrick Donna5,Bingham Paul A.1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Materials and Engineering Research Institute, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, UK

2. The Henry Royce Institute and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK

3. Department of Chemistry, University of Sheffield, Western Bank, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK

4. School of Engineering, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

5. National Nuclear Laboratory, Sellafield, Seascale, Cumbria CA20 1PG, UK

Abstract

The UK’s adoption of pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuel as an alternative to the current aqueous processing routes requires a robust scientific underpinning of all relevant processes. One key process is the clean-up of the contaminated salt from the electroreducing and electrorefining processes. A proposed method for this clean-up is zone refining, whereby the tendency of the contaminants to remain in the liquid phase during melting and freezing is exploited to ‘sweep’ the contaminants to one end of the sample. Experiments were performed, utilising off-the-shelf laboratory equipment, to demonstrate the feasibility of zone refining for clean-up of electroreducing and electrorefining wastes. This was successful for the electrorefining simulant samples, with effective segregation coefficient, keff, values, which provide a measure of the degree of separation in the sample, between 0 and 1. Lower values indicate greater separation, with values of as low as 0.542 achieved here, corresponding to a reduction in RECl3 content from 10.0 wt.% to 8.4 wt.% (for 80% salt reuse). Due to difficulties in obtaining a fully homogeneous electroreducing simulant waste, it was not possible to demonstrate the feasibility of zone refining using the current experimental setup. Further research is required to elucidate the correct preparation conditions for production of homogeneous electroreducing waste simulants.

Funder

£46m Advanced Fuel Cycle Programme

EPSRC and BEIS

Henry Royce Institute for Advanced Materials

EPSRC

Publisher

MDPI AG

Reference29 articles.

1. (2024, January 07). International Energy Agency—Data and Statistics. Available online: https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics?country=WORLD&fuel=Energy.

2. Netter, P. (2012). Reprocessing of Spent Oxide Fuel from Nuclear Power Reactors, Woodhead Publishing Limited.

3. Spent fuel reprocessing: A vital link in Indian nuclear power program;Dey;Nucl. Eng. Des.,2006

4. Electrochemical Salt Wasteform Development: A Review of Salt Treatment and Immobilization Options;Riley;Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.,2020

5. Brambilla, G., and Sartorelli, A. (1980). Electrochemical Reprocessing of Nuclear. (GB 2045511A), Fuels. Patent.

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