Introduction of MKZP (Min Ku Zirconium Process) as an alternative to pyroprocessing for used nuclear fuel management

Abstract

A new process to co-recover uranium and transuranic nuclides from used nuclear fuels was introduced, which was named ‘MKZP’ (Min Ku Zirconium Process), as an alternative of widely known pyroprocessing. Instead of an electrochemical reduction of the pyroprocessing, the MKZP employs Zr and ZrCl4 as reactants to chemically convert U3O8 into UCl3, which leads to a significant advantage in total number of processes. An addition of fresh zirconium can be minimized by employing cladding hull waste as a source of zirconium tetrachloride through a chlorination process.