Study for process and equipment design of wet gelation stages in vibropacking process

Process and layout design of external wet gelation stages in vibropacking process was examined for the feasibility study of commercialized FBR cycle system. In this study, following process stages for the oxide core fuel production line were covered, that is, solidification, washing, drying, calcination, reduction, sintering stages including interim storage of sintering particles and reagent recovery stage. The main results obtained by this study are as follows: (1) Based on the process examination results conducted previously, process-flow, mass-balance and number of production line/equipment were clarified. The process is covered from the receive tank of feed solution to the interim storage equipment. Reagent recovery process-flow, mass-balance were also clarified. And preliminary design of the main equipment was reexamined. (2) Normal operation procedure and the procedure after process failure were summarized along with a remote automated operation procedure. Operation sequence of each production line was mapped out by using a time-chart. (3) Design outline of reagent recovery equipments, installed to recover waste liquid from the wet gelation stages in the view of environmental impact were examined. Effective techniques such as collection of solvent, residue waste treatment method were examined its applicability and selected. Schematic block diagram was presented. (4) Analytical items and analyzing apparatus were extracted taking into account of quality control and process management. Analytical sample taking position and frequency of sampling were also examined. (5) A schematic layout drawing of main manufacturing process and reagent recovery process was presented taking into account of material handling. (6) A feature of the operating rate at each process stage was examined by analyzing failure rate reliability of each component. applying the reliability-centred method. (RCM), the operating rate was evaluated and annual maintenance period was estimated using these data. (7) Based on the above results, operation capability was evaluated using the plant operating-rate simulator, taking the throughput and buffer capacity for every process as parameters. Influence of loss of intermediated product was also examined. (8) Cost of the Equipment and building construction were evaluated. In addition, operation cost, as utilities cost, labor cost required for the plant operation was evaluated for the production capacity of 200ton-HM/year. Interrelation between equipment cost and production capacity was examined. (9) The amount of wastes from the main production line was evaluated. The amount of TRU wastes accompanied with sample analysis was also examined. (10) In the case of maintenance outside of the process cell, decontamination method of the apparatus was examined. (11) As a result of this study, technical perspectives of the process were discussed and future research issues were clarified. (author)