Proposal of materials transfer capability evaluation model and its application to pyrochemical reprocessing plant

A materials transfer capability evaluation model was constructed using a discrete event simulation technology in order to check out plant operation ability of non-aqueous reprocessing plant. The evaluation model was then applied to a conceptual plant design using non-aqueous, oxide electrowinning reprocessing technology, conducted in the first phase (Jury 1999 to March 2001) of feasibility study on commercialized fast reactor cycle systems in Japan. The result shows that the practical amount of production of the plant was about 70% of the designed value. In the study, several improvement measures to increase the amount of production were also tried that it is the most effective to speed up remote control time of materials handling equipments among some improvement measures, such as increase of the number of process installations. The results also indicate that such improvement measures may provide 95% of the designed value. (author)