Pyrochemical Dissolution of LWR Spent Fuel with Actinide Recovery for Advanced Reactors

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Program:
CURIE
Award:
$1,454,068
Location:
Salt Lake City, Utah
Status:
ACTIVE
Project Term:
01/18/2023 - 01/17/2026
Website:

Technology Description:

The University of Utah will research a pyrochemical process for efficiently converting UNF to a uranium/transuranic (U/TRU) product suitable for sodium-cooled fast reactors or molten-salt fueled reactors. This process is based on two key separations steps that can occur in a single reaction vessel: dissolution of oxide UNF in molten lithium chloride (LiCl)-potassium chloride (KCl) salt and electrochemical recovery of U/TRU metal on a cathode. Overall, this technology should result in less material handling and lower space requirements than conventional pyroprocessing technology via elimination of fuel baskets, consolidation of processing units, and use of a single solvent salt (i.e., LiCl-KCl). If successful, the proposed process would open the pathway for high throughput, economical pyrochemical processing of UNF that does not generate pure plutonium streams.

Potential Impact:

By enabling the secure and economical recycling of the nation’s inventory of LWR UNF, CURIE will have the following impacts:

Security:

Support the deployment of advanced reactor (AR) technologies by providing safe and sustainable domestic fuel stocks. Improvements in monitoring capabilities could enable more precise controls of various reprocessing stages while ensuring increased security of materials of concern.

Environment:

Substantially reduce the disposal impact of the nation’s inventory of LWR UNF, decrease uranium mining requirements, and support a comprehensive national strategy to store radioactive waste safely and securely.

Economy:

Complement ARPA-E’s existing nuclear energy research portfolio, further ensuring the commercial viability of innovative new ARs, and enable an additional revenue stream via valuable radionuclides recovered from UNF for diverse applications.

Contact

ARPA-E Program Director:
Dr. Jenifer Shafer
Project Contact:
Prof. Michael Simpson
Press and General Inquiries Email:
ARPA-E-Comms@hq.doe.gov
Project Contact Email:
michael.simpson@utah.edu

Related Projects

• Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) - Radioisotope Capture Intensification Using Rotating Packed Bed Contactors
• Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) - Highly Efficient Electrochemical Oxide Reduction for U/TRU Recovery from LWR Fuel
• Curio Solutions - Closing the Cycle with NuCycle™
• Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) - Development of the Technical and Business Case for the Establishment of an Advanced Fuel Cycle Enterprise
• General Electric (GE) Global Research - Monochromatic Assays Yielding Enhanced Reliability (MAYER)
• Idaho National Laboratory (INL) - Development of Robust Anode Materials for the Electrochemical Recovery of Actinide Elements from the Used Nuclear Fuel
• Mainstream Engineering - Improved Volatile and Semi-volatile Radionuclide Off-Gas Management
• NuVision Engineering - Modular Power Fluidics and Online Optical Spectroscopy for Reprocessing Separation Plant Accountancy
• University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) - Group Hexavalent Actinide Separation: A Single-Step, Proliferation Resistant Approach to Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing
• University of Colorado, Boulder (CU-Boulder) - Achieving 1% Assay of Special Nuclear Materials in 2 Minutes with Microcalorimeter-Array Gamma-Ray Spectroscopy
• University of North Texas (UNT) - Self-powered Wireless Hybrid Density/Level Sensing with Differential Pressure Sensors for Safeguarding and Monitoring of Electrochemical Processing of Nuclear Spent Fuel
• University of Utah - Pyrochemical Dissolution of LWR Spent Fuel with Actinide Recovery for Advanced Reactors

Release Date:
03/15/2022