Pyrochemistry for cost-effective nuclear waste management
An alternative to the currently used hydrometallurgy, pyrochemical processing has been extensively studied within the scope of the PYROREP project. The primary focus of this project was the practical issues related to the separation of uranium, plutonium and minor actinides from fission products. Using pyrochemistry in a molten chloride or fluoride system, the pyrometallurgical processing research project resulted in some interesting findings. Reductive salt/metal extraction in fluoride media led to satisfactory decontamination for both americium recovery and fission products. In chloride media using electrolytic processes, an aluminium cathode was found more efficient than a cadmium cathode to recover and separate the actinides from the lanthanides. However, this area is still under investigation in order to resolve the difficulties involved with the use of an aluminium cathode to recover the separated actinides. Basic data reflecting the behaviour of fission products and actinides (uranium, plutonium and americium) in molten salts and metals was derived. Collected data is expected to contribute to the design of basic schemes for reprocessing processes. Therefore, two strict constraints need to be met: an actinide recovery factor of 99.9% and sufficient fission products decontamination whose content has to be recycled by less than 5%. Research showed that these criteria could be met if a suitable combination of more than one-separation steps was included. Within the PYROREP project, pyrochemical processing was studied in detail and the derived results provide the suitable framework for future research. The experimental work, the documentary concept evaluation studies and the data are expected to promote pyrometallurgical processing processes to minimise the radiological impact from nuclear waste. Another offer related to PYROREP is offer ID:1314 that may be found at: http://www.cordis.lu/marketplace(opens in new window)
