| Project Detail |
The U.S. has accumulated approximately 86,000 metric tons of used nuclear fuel (UNF) from light-water reactors (LWRs), a value that increases by approximately 2,000 tons per year. This UNF is destined for permanent disposal even though more than 90% of its energy remains. Innovative technologies that enable the secure, economical reprocessing of the nation’s LWR UNF could substantially reduce the volume, heat load, and radiotoxicity of waste requiring permanent disposal while providing a valuable and sustainable fuel feedstock for advanced fast reactors. CURIE seeks to research innovative separations technologies, material accountancy, and online monitoring technologies, as well as designs for a reprocessing facility that will enable group recovery of actinides for advanced reactor (AR) feedstocks, incorporate in situ process monitoring, minimize waste volumes, enable a 1¢/kilowatt-hour (kWh) fuel cost for AR fuels, and maintain disposal costs in the range of 0.1¢/kWh.
Project Innovation + Advantages:
Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) will develop, produce, and test rotating packed bed contactors designed from the ground up for UNF reprocessing. The proposed PAcked Centrifugal Equipment for Radiochemical separations, PACERs, applies a centrifugal field to increase the efficiency of separations in packed beds and decrease the required packing volumes by more than 50% compared with state-of-the-art columns. PACERs could replace current CO2 and I2 off-gas scrubbing systems, pulsed columns, and ion exchange columns used for traditional gas-liquid, liquid-liquid, and solid-liquid separations, respectively. These compact, modular units will have lower installed costs than columns because of decreased material, manufacturing, and shielding requirements.
Potential Impact:
By enabling the secure and economical recycling of the nation’s inventory of LWR UNF, CURIE will have the following impacts: |
