Process facility modifications project

The Process Facility Modification Project (PFM) is a US Department of Energy (DOE) project which is designed to replace the existing head-end of the Plutonium Uranium Extraction (PUREX) Plant at the DOE's Hanford, Washington facilities. The purpose and need for the PFM project are twofold. First, it is desired to recover the plutonium loaned to the DOE's breeder reactor research program by the DOE's Defense Program. This plutonium is being used as fuel in the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) at Hanford, Washington. The fuel consists of a mixture of PuO/UO clad in stainless steel tubes. There are presently no US facilities which can reprocess stainless-steel-clad fuel. Therefore, to recover this plutonium a new facility which uses a chop/leach process must be constructed. Secondly, it is desired to use more modern reprocessing techniques to reduce the volume of high-level liquid radioactive waste produce by PUREX. By replacing the current Zirflex headed with the chop/leach process, the amount of liquid waste generated when reprocessing N Reactor fuel can be reduced by ∼90%