Uranium-plutonium partitioning by pulsed column in the first cycle of the three cycle thermal oxide reprocessing plant

The Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (THORP) is currently being commissioned at the Sellafield, England site of British Nuclear Fuels Plc, and will use the Purex process to reprocess irradiated oxide fuel from British, European and Japanese reactors. Careful initial design of the chemical flowsheet, combined with extensive small and full scale, fully active and inactive development work resulted in an efficient three cycle flowsheet with the minimum number of liquid waste streams. The use of salt-free reagents allows these wastes to be evaporated and vitrified for long term storage. The effect of technetium on the uranium-plutonium partitioning process and of neptunium on the purification of the uranium product received particular attention during the development work. (author)