POTENTIAL REPROCESSING IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ADVANCED FUEL RECYCLE SYSTEM

From the aspects of economical competitiveness, proliferation resistan ce, and minimizing waste problems, PNC has proposed an improved recycl e concept for the FBR fuel cycle, termed Advanced Fuel Recycle System. Reprocessing in this system is based on the well-known PUREX flowshee t and features a ''single cycle Pu/U co-extraction flowsheet'' with lo wer decontamination factor(DF) than that in the conventional process. This feature is practical because of the FBR's low neutronic sensitivi ty to impurities. Such a simplified extraction process without purific ation cycles should substantially reduce not only the number of proces s components but also the quantities of liquid to be treated in other related processes, so it will lead to the proportional reduction in wa ste processing, waste itself, and all other related equipments and fac ilities. This should improve overall economics. One method being exami ned to further reduce the liquid throughputs and simplify the process is to apply the crystallization technique to dissolver solution. Overa ll, with this proposed concept, proliferation resistance will be signi ficantly improved because plutonium is always recovered as a mixture w ith the uranium and DF of the plutonium product is low. Reprocessing a nd fabrication processes are integrated into one fuel cycle plant in t his system further contributing to these improvements. (C) 1997 Publis hed by Elsevier Science Ltd.