Development of AUH Wet Reconversion Process

As a part of the uranium refinement and separation technology development project, we, the engineers at KEPCO Nuclear Fuel (KNF) have developed ammonium uranate hydrate (AUH) wet reconversion process. Based on the analysis results, chemical composition, particle shape, and characteristics of UO₂ powder prepared from this process are different compared to those of AUC and ADU process. Therefore, we name this process as AUH wet reconversion process. As a result of this development, we have developed several process equipment (Crystallization Reactor and Pulsed Fluidized Bed Reactor (PFBR)), designed process, and performed the process by our own EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) work. Generally, there are two types of reconversion processes in manufacturing nuclear fuel for PWR. One is wet process, and the other is dry process. The most important unit process in wet and dry processes is the crystallization of uranium compounds from solution and gas phase. Uranium scrap, by-produced during manufacturing nuclear fuel, can be recycled in wet processes solely because both uranium hexafluoride (UF6) and uranium nitrate hexahydrate (UNH) aqueous solution are used as feed materials. Therefore, dry processes certainly require additional wet processes to recycle uranium scrap.