The development of new head-end process techniques in the reprocessing of LWR spent fuel

The chop and reach method used in conventional reprocessing facilities has several disadvantages as follows, (1) A large shearing machine is used for chopping fuel assemblies. It has significant problems for long-term operation and maintenance. (2) Dissolution rate of fuel pellets with zircaloy cladding is very slow. The dissolver is operated in severe conditions. Hence, a new head-end process was developed to improve disadvantages in conventional one. This process consists of several steps, such as the dismantling of fuel assemblies without a large shearing machine, the chemical decladding of fuel, the removal of iodine from the fuel by using voloxidation technique and the dissolution of fuel under milder conditions. In this paper, the recent research on the development of proposed process was reported and its applicability to the practical use was reported. (author)