Recycle of scrap plutonium-238 oxide fuel to support future radioisotope applications

Statistics – Applications

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

Purification, Sol-Gel Processing, Precipitation

Scientific paper

The Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory has initiated a development program to recover & purify plutonium-238 oxide from impure feed sources in a glove box environment. A glove box line has been designed and a chemistry flowsheet developed to perform this recovery task at large scale. The initial demonstration effort focused on purification of 238PuO2 fuel by HNO3/HF dissolution, followed by plutonium(III) oxalate precipitation and calcination to an oxide. Decontamination factors for most impurities of concern in the fuel were very good, producing 238PuO2 fuel significantly better in purity than specified by General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) fuel powder specifications. A sufficient quantity of purified 238PuO2 fuel was recovered from the process to allow fabrication of a GPHS unit for testing. The results are encouraging for recycle of relatively impure plutonium-238 oxide and scrap residue items into fuel for useful applications. The high specific activity of plutonium-238 magnifies the consequences and concerns of radioactive waste generation. This work places an emphasis on development of waste minimization technologies to complement the aqueous processing operation. Results from experiments on neutralized solutions of plutonium-238 resulted in decontamination to about 1 millicurie/L. Combining ultrafiltration treatment with addition of a water-soluble polymer designed to coordinate Pu, allowed solutions to be decontaminated to about 1 microcurie/L. Efforts continue to develop a capability for efficient, safe, cost-effective, and environmentally acceptable methods to recover and purify 238PuO2 fuel.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Recycle of scrap plutonium-238 oxide fuel to support future radioisotope applications does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Recycle of scrap plutonium-238 oxide fuel to support future radioisotope applications, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Recycle of scrap plutonium-238 oxide fuel to support future radioisotope applications will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1652451

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.