Pretreatment of spent fuel cladding hull using Ag(2) in nitric acid solution

A study on the decontamination of spent fuel cladding hulls, which have a considerable portion in solid radioactive wastes generated from the nuclear fuel cycle, was carried out by applying the electrochemical process using the electro-generated Ag(II) in nitric acid solution in order to develop the pretreatment technology for volume reduction. In the electrochemical process, the effects of applied current, concentration of nitric acid, temperature and burn-up of the fuel on the decontamination efficiency were analyzed. Chemical decontamination using nitric acid solution without Ag(II) was also performed and the result was compared with that obtained with electrochemical process. Most of the α-radionuclides in the spent fuel cladding hulls can be removed through electrochemical process. The pretreatment performances by electrochemical process using the electrogenerated Ag(II) in nitric acid solution was better than those by chemical process