Zirconium and Technetium Recovery and Partitioning in the Presence of Actinides in Modified Purex Process for ATW Program. Final Report

The modified Purex process flowsheet is based on combination of all irradiated materials, their joint dissolution and reprocessing as a NPP spent fuel solution with abnormal Pu content after addition of recycled depleted U concentrate. Some groups of long-lived radionuclides could be completely recovered and localized at the stage of extraction reprocessing using 30% TBP. Studies were conducted for 10 y to develop the process for recovery, concentration, and localization of U, Pu, Np, Tc, and Zr within 1st extraction cycle. Actinides are recovered from high-level raffinate of this cycle after evaporation and feed adjustment. Results in this report show that combined deep recovery of several elements from highly irradiated materials by TBP extraction, for further transmutation, is possible. Selective stripping of Zr from solvent phase containing U, Pu, Np, and Tc is quite effective. Development of the modified Purex process is not complete; main problem to be solved should be oxide separation from the loop and permissible storage duration before reprocessing and reuse in the loop