Consolidating electrorefined spent nuclear fuel waste - analysis and experiment

Argonne National Laboratory has developed a process to immobilize waste salt containing fission products, uranium, and transuranic elements as chlorides in a glass-bonded ceramic waste form. This salt was generated in the electrorefining operation used in the electrometallurical treatment of spent EBR-II fuel. The ceramic waste process culminates with an elevated temperature operation. The processing conditions used by the furnace, for demonstration scale and production scale operations, are to be developed at Argonne National Laboratory. To assist in selecting the processing conditions of the furnace and to reduce the number of costly experiments, a finite difference model was developed to predict the consolidation of the ceramic waste. The model accurately predicted the heating as well as the bulk density of the ceramic waste form. The methodology used to develop the computer model and a comparison of the analysis to experimental data is presented.