Experimental justification of a pyrochemical technology for reprocessing of mixed uranium-plutonium nitride spent nuclear fuel

Abstract

The article describes pyrochemical processing of spent nuclear fuel, including high-temperature processing, electrochemical reduction of actinide oxides to metals in a chloride-oxide melt, anode manufacture by induction remelting, and electrolytic refining of actinides in a chloride melt. The technology has been proven and tested on model nuclear fuel. The obtained data underlay the requirements for reagents and support systems. Moreover, these data were used for the design of equipment and pyrochemical section of the processing module at the pilot demonstration energy complex as part of the power unit with the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled reactor currently being constructed at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine JSC, Russian Federation.