Pyrometallurgical partitioning and waste treatment

Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry has proposed a concept to separate long-lived transuranium elements from high level wastes by pyrometallurgical processing and then to transmute them to short-lived nuclides in a metallic fuel fast reactor. The research and development on the concept have been in progress since 1987. In the pyrometallurgical process, the high level wastes are denitrated and solidified to oxides by heating, and converted to chlorides with chlorine gas. Transuranium elements are then separated from fission products and recovered from molten salt by reductive extraction and electrorefining. On the treatment of the waste salt generated from the pyrometallurgical process, the technique to convert it to the stable chemical form is being developed. (author)