Nuclear reprocessing is the chemical separation of fission products and unused uranium from spent nuclear fuel. While reprocessing doe spent fuel could potentially create a source of fissile and target material for reuse in future nuclear energy production, the heterogeneity and complexity of most of the inventory would make it a significantly less attractive source material for commercial fuel fabrication than the much larger, homogeneous quantities of. Research on advanced aqueous reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. The reprocessed uranium, also known as the spent fuel. Reprocessing capacities are being augmented in a phased manner to match the pu requirement. The objective of this entry is to give a basic overview of the technology elements behind nuclear fuel reprocessing. Spent nuclear fuel reprocessing implementation act summary pdf. Some of this fuel came from srs reactors, and spent fuel containing heu was also sent to srs from research and test reactors in the u. Costs of reprocessing versus directly disposing of spent nuclear fuel before the committee on energy and natural resources united states senate november 14, 2007 congressional budget office second and d streets, s. The recovered fissile material is used to manufacture new fuel rods for nuclear reactors, while the remaining waste is solidified and disposed of.
Journal of alloys and compounds, 2214 1994 453455 453 jalcom 4107 spent fuel reprocessing based on electrochemical extraction process sreep z. Up1 spent fuel reprocessing plant up1, built in the marcoule centre of the french atomic energy commission, was commissioned in july 1958. Spent fuel in existing nuclear programs can be managed in a cooperative manner. Storage and management of spent fuel of fast reactors in india s. Show full abstract vr simulation system for spent fuel reprocessing vrss aimed at demonstrating and analyzing the treatment process. Joint convention on the safety of spent fuel management. Oct 05, 2007 perhaps carter announced in april the intent to suspend reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel snf. The analysis presents cost trends for both strategies. Spread of sensitive fuel cycle technologies enrichment reprocessing reduced or. Spent nuclear fuel reprocessing implementation act meti. Chetal director, reactor engineering group indira gandhi centre for atomic research, kalpakkam intl conf for spent fuel management from nuclear power plants 31 st may tp 4 th june 2010, vienna. If this does happen, the need for spent fuel reprocessing will.
Pdf reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel. Flowsheet calculation result of 1 000 kg lwr spent. The offers were rejected by german and japanese clients. In the past two decades, germanys objective has changed also in view of spent nuclear fuel snf management. Joint convention on the safety of spent fuel management and. Spent fuel management policy ireland has no civil or defence reactors to deal with. No spent nuclear reactor fuel in storage or awaiting treatment and no associated spent fuel reprocessing facilities of any sort. Radioactive waste management policy as reported in the last reporting cycle, in late 2010 the government adopted a policy. Currently existing stored or disposed and forecast volumes of waste by category in 2004, 2010 and 2020. Currently, the department of en ergy plans to permanently dispose of spent fuel without reprocessing, but some experts be lieve that this will waste a valuable source of. Spent fuel management practices ireland has no fuel processing facilities to deal with.
Spent fuel reprocessing optimisation choose experts, find partners h. Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor usually at a nuclear power plant. The delivery of spent fuel discharged from power reactors for reprocessing abroad has been prohibited since the mid of 2005, the direct disposal of spent fuel became according to law, the only backend option. Therefore, the spent nuclear fuel snf reprocessing is not considered today as the only alternative of the nuclear fuel cycle. On april 7, 1977, president jimmy carter announced that the united states would defer indefinitely the reprocessing of spent nuclear reactor fuel. The breakeven uranium price at which reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from existing lightwater reactors lwrs and recycling the resulting plutonium and uranium in lwrs would become economic is assessed, using central estimates of the costs of. Continued reprocessing is one of the options in the draft eis for managing snf in the future. Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear fuel reprocessing prezi. Advantages and disadvantages of nuclear fuel reprocessing.
The breakeven uranium price at which reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from existing lightwater reactors lwrs and recycling the resulting plutonium and uranium in lwrs would become economic is assessed, using central estimates of the costs of different elements of the nuclear fuel cycle. After unit1 shutdown its spent fuel pool is used as a temporary storage facility for spent fuel. Reprocessing extracts isotopes from spent nuclear fuel so they can be used again as reactor fuel. The second and third plants are located at t arapur and kalpakkam and reprocess spent fuel from power reactors. The recovery of the fissile materials is designed with a target value of 99. Operating the rokkasho reprocessing plant rrp will cost the japanese people about. The facilities operating in the world are today incapable of reprocessing the whole amount of the already accumulated and annually unloaded npp spent fuel. I believe the suspension of reprocessing was in the department of energy organization act, pl 9591, signed 8477, which may be confused with reorganization act of 1977, pl 9517, signed 4677, the latter being reorganization of the executive. Spent fuel from lessstable region of the world could be takenback takenaway on a contractual and time basis. As part of the irish public sector reform plan, in 2012 the government decided to merge the radiological protection institute of ireland rpii and the environmental protection agency epa.
Reprocessing is unnecessary and even detrimental for nuclear power. Reprocessing was also used at srs to recover heu from spent fuel to be made into new fuel. Tens of thousands of tons of radioactive material were reprocessed at the savannah river site srs near aiken, sc, from the mid1950s through the beginning of this decade. Environmental aspects economics operational experience scale and plant capacity large investment fig.
Ebrii fuel reprocessing and refabrication operations were suspended. It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle, it may have considerably different isotopic constituents. Figure 31 typical operations at spent fuel reprocessing facilities that uses a co extraction. Abstract this report assesses the economics of reprocessing versus direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Tachikawab aadvanced science research center, bdepartment of chemtry and fuel research, japan atomic energy research institute, toka lbaraki 31911 japan abstract a. French nuclear reprocessing failure at home, coup detat. We cover reprocessing technology as well as current research and innovation in the area, as well as its environmental impact, the current policy climate in the united states, and an. What is the cost of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel per kg. Each of these plants has an operating capacity of 100 tons per year. Advantages technical challenges gen iv and closed fuel cycle lowering the.
Inauguration of the nuclear reprocessing organization of japan october 3, 2016 the cabinet approved the cabinet orders for stipulating the effective date of the spent nuclear fuel reprocessing implementation act september 27, 2016. Pyrochemical reprocessing of spent fuel by electrochemical techniques using solid aluminium cathodes article pdf available in energy procedia 7. Storage and management of spent fuel of fast reactors in india. Reprocessing of used nuclear fuel is undertaken for several reasons. The current process used for spent fuel reprocessing, drawing on. It should serve as a starting point for more detailed study with the aid of the bibliography section to obtain more technical details on this subject. As above, these figures exclude those wastes arising from the reprocessing of foreign spent fuel. The current process used for spent fuel reprocessing, drawing on over 50 years research and industrial development.
Reprocessing and spent nuclear fuel management at the savannah river site some of the terms used in this factsheet are defined in ieers online glossary. Reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel presents an authoritative overview of spent fuel reprocessing, considering future prospects for advanced closed fuel cycles. In recognition of the importance of spent fuel reprocessing in the back end of the fuel cycle, the iaea has provided a forum for exchange of information on the status and trends in spent fuel reprocessing since the 1970s, from which several publications have appeared 1,2,3. Fuel cycle initiative and the more recently promulgated global nuclear energy partnership gnep, and the weapons ambitions of north korea and iran have thrust the topic more into the spotlight. The estimated fuelcycle cost is due to the costs of reprocessing and fabrication, less a credit of 2. The rrp is designed, when operating at full capacity, to separate about 8. This report assesses the economics of reprocessing versus direct disposal of spent nuclear fuel. Review of spent fuel reprocessing and associated accident phenomena nuregcr7232 on this page.
The paper attempts to analyze measures aimed at reducing expenditures for npp fuel reprocessing. Additionally, there are other advanced technologies being investigated which combine several. Reprocessing and spent nuclear fuel management at the. These include 1 recovery of the valuable fissile constituents primarily 235u and plutonium for subsequent reuse in recycle fuel. The vrss is based the vr and visualization technology.
Fresh fuel supplies are assured at competitive prices. As part of the irish public sector reform plan, in 2012 the government decided to merge the radiological protection institute of ireland rpii and. How can the cost of spent fuel reprocessing be reduced and. Flowsheet calculation result of 1 000 kg lwr spent fuel processing spent mox fuel, 45 gwdt burnup, 5 years cooling 42 figure 18. Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel audrea buckley 21 november 2006 nuclear energy currently provides 20% of the u. Nuclear reprocessing is the chemical treatment of spent fuel involving. With commercialization of nuclear power, the reprocessed plutonium was recycled back into mox nuclear fuel for thermal reactors. The objective of the present study is to compare the associated costs of longterm storage of spent nuclear fuelopen cycle strategywith the associated cost of reprocessing and recycling strategy of spent fuelclosed cycle strategybased on the current international studies. This report aims to collect spent nuclear fuel reprocessing flowsheet of various. The proper management of spent fuel arising from nuclear power production is a key issue for the sustainable development of nuclear energy. The reprocessed uranium, also known as the spent fuel material, can in principle. Flowsheet calculation result of 1 000 kg lwr spent fuel processing spent uo 2 fuel, 60 gwdt burnup, 5 years cooling 41 figure 17. The aec invited public comment on a proposed policy in the form of appendix f to 10 c. This paper analyzes the process of nuclear fuel reprocessing, where spent nuclear fuel is refined to reduce waste and provide further material for nuclear fuel.
Development of pyroprocess fuel cell technology pdf. Spent fuel processing recycling 96% of the metals in spent fuel excluding cladding and hardware can be recovered, with only a small fraction sent to the geologic repository tru 1% uranium 95 % 0. Reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel 1 reprocessing ofspent nuclear fuel. Reprocessing, the chemical process of separating plutonium and uranium out of spent nuclear fuel, creates both reusable nuclear materials and a small amount of highly concentrated waste. Without reprocessing, the spent fuel becomes nuclear waste.
Reprocessing and recycling of spent nuclear fuel 1st edition. Nuclear reprocessing is the chemical separation of fission products and unused uranium from. Emd8178 is spent fuel or waste from reprocessed spent. Emd8178 is spent fuel or waste from reprocessed spent fuel. Eisenhower, to the 470th plenary meeting of the united nations general assemblydecember 8, 1953, 245 p.
After five years of storage the spent fuel is placed into dry spent fuel storage dsfs and are placed into horizontal concrete storage modules hsm. Policy on reprocessing nuclear reaction frontline pbs. Originally, reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing nuclear weapons. Perhaps carter announced in april the intent to suspend reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel snf. Fuel reprocessing recycling the processing of reactor fuel to separate the unused fissionable material from waste material. Dedicated to reprocessing irradiated fuel from the g1, g2 and g3 plutoniumproducing reactors, the plant extracted plutonium and recovered unburnt uranium. Spent nuclear fuel reprocessing flowsheet nuclear energy agency. The recovery of the fissile materials is designed with a target value of. The challenges in spent fuel reprocessing can be understood if one considers the spent fuel with radioactivity given in table 2 and compared with the product specifications given in table 3. The aec authorized general electric company ge to construct a spent fuel reprocessing facility in morris, il. While reprocessing of spent fuel was historically the favored strategy for the back end fuel cycle, in the past few decades some countries have turned to other options.
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