Long-lived nuclide separation for advancing back-end fuel cycle process

Abstract

An advanced PUREX process named PARC process having a partitioning function of long-lived nuclides has been developed for establishing the coming generation's fuel cycle technologies, which satisfy a sustainable energy security and global environmental protection. Key technologies applied in the process are: 1) removal of carbone-14 and iodine-129 with adsorption techniques in dissolver off-gas, 2) separation of neptunium and technetium by selective reduction of Np(Vl) by normal-butyraldehyde and the high acid scrubbing of technetium, 3) separation of americium from the raffinate of co-extraction step with adsorption technique, 4) solvent-washing with normal-butylamine compounds. The separation efficiency of long-lived nuclides in the process was measured in chemical flow sheet experiments using spent fuels burned up to 44,000 MWD/tU.