Industrial development: A reprocessing plant in a single extraction cycle

In France, COGEMA/AREVA has been reprocessing spent nuclear fuel on an industrial scale for over 40 years, and has consistently worked to optimize facility design and operations. In COGEMA-La Hague's UP3 reprocessing plant, to achieve the necessary decontamination needed to produce purified uranium and plutonium, five extraction cycles were implemented and used at start-up: first cycle for separation of fission products, uranium and plutonium, two uranium purification cycles and two plutonium purification cycle. By modifying processes at the design stage and making adjustments during operations, we saw that further decontamination of uranium could be achieved with only one cycle. Radiological specification of plutonium was also obtained at the end of the first plutonium purification cycle. These good performance levels were taken into account for the design of the UP2-800 plant where uranium is purified using a single cycle, and for the recent R4 facility which features only one plutonium purification cycle. Relevant information on extraction cycles in first-generation French reprocessing plants (UP1 and UP2-400) as well as design characteristics for the extraction cycles of reprocessing facilities currently operating at the COGEMA-La Hague plant is given. Experience shows that we can obtain adequate performance levels using only three cycles. We will also present potential evolutions for extraction cycles, e.g., neptunium decontamination, and demonstrate that one cycle can be sufficient for reprocessing the spent nuclear currently available. The benefits associated with a single extraction cycle will be detailed in the presentation. (authors)