Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Coupled End-to-End Research,Development and Demonstration Project: Integrated Off-gas Treatment System Design and Initial Performance - 9226

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is conducting a complete, coupled end-to-end (CETE) demonstration of advanced nuclear fuel reprocessing to support the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative. This small-scale reprocessing operation provides a unique opportunity to test integrated off-gas treatment systems designed to recover the primary volatile fission and activation products (H-3, C-14, Kr-85, and I-139) released from the spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The CETE project will demonstrate an advanced head-end process, referred to as voloxidation, designed to condition the SNF, separate the SNF from the cladding, and release tritium contained in the fuel matrix. The off-gas from the dry voloxidation process as well as from the more traditional fuel dissolution process will be treated separately and the volatile components recovered. This paper provides descriptions of the off-gas treatment systems for both the voloxidation process and for the fuel dissolution process and provides preliminary results from the initial CETE processing runs. Impacts of processing parameters on the relative quantities of volatile components released and recovery efficiencies are evaluated.