Oxalate process: the unique way for plutonium conversion

The continuous oxalate process has been selected from the very beginning of industrial reprocessing. Oxalate conversion process is described as well as the various facilities where this process has been implemented. It demonstrates the unique experience gained by COGEMA in this field, in terms of high throughput, total volume of production, quality of product and safety of operation. Numerous improvements have been brought to the process, among which the most important are: - the process qualification, which allows to ensure a constant quality of final product, - the degree of automation aimed at decreasing and even deleting any manual operation, - the safety and criticality principles such as the extensive use of geometrically safe equipment, the full implementation of double containment, - the increase of throughput, to comply with the requirement of large modem reprocessing plants, This continuous progress has been possible thanks to a vigorous R and D. The large experience gained today in mixed oxide fuel (MOX) fabrication demonstrates that oxalate process is fully qualified to ensure the complete closure of fuel cycle. The oxalate continuous conversion process will be soon applied in the field of recovery of weapons grade plutonium