Nuclear reprocessing

Nuclear reprocessing is the chemical separation of fission products and actinides from spent nuclear fuel. Originally, reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing nuclear weapons. With commercialization of nuclear power, the reprocessed plutonium was recycled back into MOX nuclear fuel for thermal reactors. The reprocessed uranium, also known as the spent fuel material, can in principle also be re-used as fuel, but that is only economical when uranium supply is low and prices are high. Nuclear reprocessing may extend beyond fuel and include the reprocessing of other nuclear reactor material, such as Zircaloy cladding. The high radioactivity of spent nuclear material means that reprocessing must be highly controlled and carefully executed in advanced facilities by specialized personnel. Numerous processes exist, with the chemical based PUREX process dominating. Alternatives include heating to drive off volatile elements, burning via oxidation, and fluoride volatili

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Trace concentration - Huge impact: Nitrate in the calcite/Eu(III) system

Moritz Schmidt, Kislon Voitchovsky

The interactions of trivalent lanthanides and actinides with secondary mineral phases such as calcite is of high importance for the safety assessment of deep geological repositories for high level nuclear waste (HLW). Due to similar ionic radii, calcium-bearing mineral phases are suitable host minerals for Ln(III) and An(III) ions. Especially calcite has been proven to retain these metal ions effectively by both surface complexation and bulk incorporation. Since anionic ligands (e.g., nitrate) are omnipresent in the geological environment and due to their coordinating properties, their influence on retentive processes should not be underestimated. Nitrate is a common contaminant in most HLW forms as a result of using nitric acid in fuel reprocessing. It is also formed by microbial activity under aerobic conditions. In this study, atomic force microscopy investigations revealed a major influence of nitrate upon the surface of calcite crystals. NaNO3 causes serious modifications even in trace amounts (

Elsevier2014

Plutonium management in the medium term

Rakesh Chawla

For many years various countries with access to commercial reprocessing services have been routinely recycling plutonium as UO2/PuO 2 mixed oxide (MOX) fuel in light water reactors (LWRs). This LWR MOX recycle strategy is still widely regarded as an interim step leading to the eventual establishment of sustainable fast reactor fuel cycles. The OECD/NEA Working Party on the Physics of Plutonium Fuels and Innovative Fuel Cycles (WPPR) has recently completed a review of the technical options for plutonium management in what it refers to as the "medium terra." For the purpose of the review, the WPPR considers the medium term to cover the period from now up to the point at which fast reactor fuel cycles are established on a commercial scale. The review identified a number of different designs of innovative plutonium fuel assemblies intended to be used in current LWR cores, in LWRs with significantly different moderation properties, as well as in high-temperature gas reactors. The full review report describes these various options and highlights their respective advantages and disadvantages. This paper briefly summarizes the main findings of the review.

American Nuclear Society2004

Metal-organic framework with optimally selective xenon adsorption and separation

Jian Liu, Cory Matthew Simon, Berend Smit

Nuclear energy is among the most viable alternatives to our current fossil fuel-based energy economy. The mass deployment of nuclear energy as a low-emissions source requires the reprocessing of used nuclear fuel to recover fissile materials and mitigate radioactive waste. A major concern with reprocessing used nuclear fuel is the release of volatile radionuclides such as xenon and krypton that evolve into reprocessing facility off-gas in parts per million concentrations. The existing technology to remove these radioactive noble gases is a costly cryogenic distillation; alternatively, porous materials such as metal-organic frameworks have demonstrated the ability to selectively adsorb xenon and krypton at ambient conditions. Here we carry out a high-throughput computational screening of large databases of metal-organic frameworks and identify SBMOF-1 as the most selective for xenon. We affirm this prediction and report that SBMOF-1 exhibits by far the highest reported xenon adsorption capacity and a remarkable Xe/Kr selectivity under conditions pertinent to nuclear fuel reprocessing.

Nature Publishing Group2016

ME-464: Introduction to nuclear engineering

This course is intended to understand the engineering design of nuclear power plants using the basic principles of reactor physics, fluid flow and heat transfer. This course includes the following: Reactor designs, Thermal analysis of nuclear fuel, Nuclear safety and Reactor dynamics

CH-427: Chemistry of f elements

The course will provide a synopsis of the chemistry of f elements (lanthanides and actinides) covering structure, bonding, redox and spectroscopic properties and reactivity. The coordination and organometallic chemistry of these ions will be discussed with an overview of their main applications.

PHYS-443: Physics of nuclear reactors

In this course, one acquires an understanding of the basic neutronics interactions occurring in a nuclear fission reactor as well as the conditions for establishing and controlling a nuclear chain reaction.

Nuclear reactor

A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation

Radioactive waste

Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. Radioactive waste is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power gener

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of