A TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE SEPARATION OF PLUTONIUM AND FISION PRODUCTS FROM IRRADIATED NUCLEAR REACTOR FUELS

A TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE SEPARATION OF PLUTONIUM AND FISION PRODUCTS FROM IRRADIATED NUCLEAR REACTOR FUELS PDF Author: H.A. Ohlgren
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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A TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE SEPARATION OF PLUTONIUM AND FISION PRODUCTS FROM IRRADIATED NUCLEAR REACTOR FUELS

A TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF THE SEPARATION OF PLUTONIUM AND FISION PRODUCTS FROM IRRADIATED NUCLEAR REACTOR FUELS PDF Author: H.A. Ohlgren
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Separation of Plutonium from Irradiated Fuels and Targets

Separation of Plutonium from Irradiated Fuels and Targets PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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The production of electricity by nuclear fission is, at present, nearly 366- gigawatt electric (GWe), generated from 438 operating nuclear reactors. Unlike fossil fuel ash, with limited residual available energy content and negligible heat content, the spent nuclear fuel from power production reactors contains moderate amounts of transuranium (TRU) actinides and fission products in addition to the still slightly enriched uranium. Originally nuclear technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel for military purposes. Military plutonium separations had essentially ceased by the mid-1990s. Reprocessing, however, can serve multiple purposes and the relative importance has changed over time. In the 1960's the vision of the introduction of plutonium-fueled fast-neutron breeder reactors drove the civilian separation of plutonium. More recently, reprocessing has been regarded as a means to facilitate the disposal of high-level nuclear waste and thus requires development of radically different technical approaches. In the last decade or so, principal reason for reprocessing has shifted to spent power reactor fuel being reprocessed 1) so that unused uranium and plutonium being recycled reduce the volume, gaining some 25% to 30% more energy from the original uranium in the process and thus contributing to energy security and 2) reduce the volume and radioactivity of the waste by recovering all long-lived actinides and fission products followed by recycling them in fast reactors where they are transmuted to short-lived fission products; this reduces the volume to about 20%, reduces the long term radioactivity level in the high-level waste, and complicates the possibility of the plutonium being diverted from civil use - thereby increasing the proliferation resistance of the fuel cycle.

Nuclear Wastes

Nuclear Wastes PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309052262
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 590

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Book Description
Disposal of radioactive waste from nuclear weapons production and power generation has caused public outcry and political consternation. Nuclear Wastes presents a critical review of some waste management and disposal alternatives to the current national policy of direct disposal of light water reactor spent fuel. The book offers clearcut conclusions for what the nation should do today and what solutions should be explored for tomorrow. The committee examines the currently used "once-through" fuel cycle versus different alternatives of separations and transmutation technology systems, by which hazardous radionuclides are converted to nuclides that are either stable or radioactive with short half-lives. The volume provides detailed findings and conclusions about the status and feasibility of plutonium extraction and more advanced separations technologies, as well as three principal transmutation concepts for commercial reactor spent fuel. The book discusses nuclear proliferation; the U.S. nuclear regulatory structure; issues of health, safety and transportation; the proposed sale of electrical energy as a means of paying for the transmutation system; and other key issues.

Chemistry of Separation of Plutonium from Irradiated Fuel

Chemistry of Separation of Plutonium from Irradiated Fuel PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Separation of plutonium and its purification to give a product which can be used as fuel is one of the chief aims in the reprocessing of reactor fuels consisting of irradiated uranium. It was decided to set up a plant based on solvent extraction method for primary separation and ion exchange method for the purification of plutonium to reprocess fuel from the existing reactors at Trombay, and data were, therefore, collected during the period 1959-1961 for its design.

Thorium Fuel Cycle

Thorium Fuel Cycle PDF Author: International Atomic Energy Agency
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
Provides a critical review of the thorium fuel cycle: potential benefits and challenges in the thorium fuel cycle, mainly based on the latest developments at the front end of the fuel cycle, applying thorium fuel cycle options, and at the back end of the thorium fuel cycle.

Management and Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium

Management and Disposition of Excess Weapons Plutonium PDF Author: National Academy of Sciences
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309051452
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
Within the next decade, many thousands of U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons are slated to be retired as a result of nuclear arms reduction treaties and unilateral pledges. Hundreds of tons of plutonium and highly enriched uranium will no longer be needed for weapons purposes and will pose urgent challenges to international security. This is the supporting volume to a study by the Committee on International Security and Arms Control which dealt with all phases of the management and disposition of these materials. This technical study concentrates on the option for the disposition of plutonium, looking in detail at the different types of reactors in which weapons plutonium could be burned and at the vitrification of plutonium, and comparing them using economic, security and environmental criteria.

Ion Exchange Separation and Coulometric Titration of Plutonium in Irradiated Fuel Element Solutions

Ion Exchange Separation and Coulometric Titration of Plutonium in Irradiated Fuel Element Solutions PDF Author: J. W. Handshuh
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Ion exhange
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Nuclear Science Abstracts

Nuclear Science Abstracts PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Nuclear energy
Languages : en
Pages : 612

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Improving the Scientific Basis for Managing DOE's Excess Nuclear Materials and Spent Nuclear Fuel

Improving the Scientific Basis for Managing DOE's Excess Nuclear Materials and Spent Nuclear Fuel PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309087228
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 124

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Book Description
The production of nuclear materials for the national defense was an intense, nationwide effort that began with the Manhattan Project and continued throughout the Cold War. Now many of these product materials, by-products, and precursors, such as irradiated nuclear fuels and targets, have been declared as excess by the Department of Energy (DOE). Most of this excess inventory has been, or will be, turned over to DOE's Office of Environmental Management (EM), which is responsible for cleaning up the former production sites. Recognizing the scientific and technical challenges facing EM, Congress in 1995 established the EM Science Program (EMSP) to develop and fund directed, long-term research that could substantially enhance the knowledge base available for new cleanup technologies and decision making. The EMSP has previously asked the National Academies' National Research Council for advice for developing research agendas in subsurface contamination, facility deactivation and decommissioning, high-level waste, and mixed and transuranic waste. For this study the committee was tasked to provide recommendations for a research agenda to improve the scientific basis for DOE's management of its high-cost, high-volume, or high-risk excess nuclear materials and spent nuclear fuels. To address its task, the committee focused its attention on DOE's excess plutonium-239, spent nuclear fuels, cesium-137 and strontium-90 capsules, depleted uranium, and higher actinide isotopes.

Uranium Enrichment and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation

Uranium Enrichment and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation PDF Author: Allan S. Krass
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 100020054X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Originally published in 1983, this book presents both the technical and political information necessary to evaluate the emerging threat to world security posed by recent advances in uranium enrichment technology. Uranium enrichment has played a relatively quiet but important role in the history of efforts by a number of nations to acquire nuclear weapons and by a number of others to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. For many years the uranium enrichment industry was dominated by a single method, gaseous diffusion, which was technically complex, extremely capital-intensive, and highly inefficient in its use of energy. As long as this remained true, only the richest and most technically advanced nations could afford to pursue the enrichment route to weapon acquisition. But during the 1970s this situation changed dramatically. Several new and far more accessible enrichment techniques were developed, stimulated largely by the anticipation of a rapidly growing demand for enrichment services by the world-wide nuclear power industry. This proliferation of new techniques, coupled with the subsequent contraction of the commercial market for enriched uranium, has created a situation in which uranium enrichment technology might well become the most important contributor to further nuclear weapon proliferation. Some of the issues addressed in this book are: A technical analysis of the most important enrichment techniques in a form that is relevant to analysis of proliferation risks; A detailed projection of the world demand for uranium enrichment services; A summary and critique of present institutional non-proliferation arrangements in the world enrichment industry, and An identification of the states most likely to pursue the enrichment route to acquisition of nuclear weapons.