The IFR fuel cycle demonstration

Abstract

Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) has refurbished an old hot-cell facility, the Fuel Cycle Facility (FCF) attached to the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-II) reactor in Idaho, for the engineering-scale demotration of the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) pyroprocess fuel cycle. Completion of modification to the facility, transfer of new process equipment into the two hot cells, and initiation of process operations were scheduled to take place in 1994. 1 1 This paper was in the final editing stages when Congress acceded to Administration wishes and ordered that development of the IFR be terminated as of October 1, 1994; the wording, for the most part, reads as though the project were to continue to its logical conclusion. The reader should make the appropriate changes mentally, recognizing that these papers refer to previously planned activities. Only nine pieces of equipment are required to completely recycle spent fuel for return to EBR-II. Three major pieces accomplish the key steps of the recycle technology: Electrorefining to extract the uranium, plutonium and other actinides from the dissolved fuel; cathode processing to produce metal ingots from the electrorefiner products; and injection casting to fabricate new fuel pins. These three pieces of equipment are scheduled to process batches typical of full-scale commercial operation. All equipment is scheduled to be taken through three phases of operation, starting with depleted uranium, moving to cold plutonium, and finally to hot spent fuel. The fuel cycle demonstration is the final technical element needed to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of the IFR.