Study on Gaseous Effluent Treatment for Dissolution Step of Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing

Behavior of radioiodine and carbon-14 during spent fuel dissolution was studied in a bench-scale reprocessing test rig where 29 and 44 GWdt-1 spent fuels were respectively dissolved. Decontamination factor of AGS (silica-gel impregnated with silver nitrate) column for iodine-129 removal was measured to be more than 36,000. The measurement of iodine-129 profile in the adsorption column showed that the nuclide was effectively trapped by the adsorbent. Measurement of iodine-129 in the dissolver solution after the iodine-stripping operation using NO2 gas at 363 K, revealed that less than 0.57% of total iodine-129 generated, which was estimated by ORIGEN II calculation, was remained in the dissolver solution. Also, measurement of iodine-129 by an iodine-stripping operation from the dissolver solution using potassium iodate showed that another 2.72% of total iodine-129 precipitated as iodide. In addition, about 70 % of total iodine generated was measured in the AGS columns. Rest of iodine-129 was supposed to adsorb to a HEPA filter and the inner surface of dissolver off-gas lines. Those results on iodine-129 distribution were found to be almost identical to the results obtained in the study using iodine-131 as tracer and the results reported by other works. It was demonstrated that the two-steps iodine-stripping method using potassium iodate could expel additional iodine from the solution, more effectively than iodine-stripping operation using NO2 gas. Iodine-131 was also detected on the AGS columns at the spent fuel dissolution. Increasing burnup showed larger amount of iodine-131 since amount of curium-244 contained in the spent fuel increased with the burnup. Release of carbon-14 as carbon dioxide during dissolution was found to occur when the release of krypton-85. From the 14CO2 measurement, initial nitrogen-14 concentration in the fuel was estimated to be about several ppm, which was within the range reported