Reprocessing of research reactor nuclear fuel based on pyrochemical separations technique

Treatment of spent nuclear fuel has received substantial attention over the last decade. At Idaho National Laboratory, pyrochemical separation is used to treat irradiated fuel elements from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II). EBR-II, a sodium-cooled fast reactor at the Materials and Fuels Complex of the Idaho National Laboratory, was shutdown in late 1994 after 30 years of operation. It used uranium-10 wt% zirconium metallic fuel alloy enriched to 67-78% uranium-235. Pyrochemical technology is applied to discharged spent fuel to separate uranium from other fuel components. The experience and data obtained from this project may be used to treat newly designed high-density low-enriched uranium (LEU) research reactor nuclear fuel. This is consistent with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy, Science and Technology goal to explore applications of pyrochemical separations to various fuel types. Therefore, pyrochemical processing of research reactor fuel is the focus of this paper. (author)