DENMARDRCP ALISIA Info Day PARIS, 040320081

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EUROPART
Actinide reCycling by SEParation and
Transmutation Toward a Process
Approach Stéphane BOURG CEA/DEN/DRCP
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Good bye, Charles...
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The Fuel Cycle... for the physicist
PF 0,0001 An 99,999
Fresh Fuel
Reactor
Reprocessing Plant
Fission Products waste
An 0,001 PF 99,9999
Spent Fuel
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The Reprocessing... for the system engineer
Head-endSteps
Materials andEngineering
Core of Process
Salt Treatmentfor Recycling
Safeguards
WasteConditioning
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and for the chemist ?
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What is really done in Pyro, today
primary aluminium 24 Mt/an
alkaline metals sodium 100 kt/an
Fluorine 15 kt/an
Down cell charge 8t, 45 kA, Far. rdt 90,
0,8t/j (Na), 1,3t/j (Cl2)
Monel cell 6 kA, Far. rdt 90, 4kg/h (F2)
AP30 cell (Alcan) 14m long, 300kA, Far. rdt
96, 2,3t/j
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What is really done in Pyro, today
Gas/liquid metal reaction Kroll process (Ti,
Zr) Ti 80kt/y (2002), Zr 6kt/y Gas/molten salt
reaction Hf/Zr separation (column 50m, 350C,
solvent KCl-AlCl3 ) Liquid metal/molten salt
reaction no industrial application
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What is really done in Pyro, today in
nuclear

• Some specific nuclear reprocessing applications
• EBRII spent fuel reprocessing in US-INL,
• mixed oxide recovery in Russia-RIAR for Mox.
• Limited to U or (U,Pu)O2 recovery on solid
  inert cathode
• For TRU recovery, were proposed
• either the use of a liquid cathode
• or the use of a liquid-liquid reductive
  extraction step

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The Reprocessing in EuropartTwo cores of process
selected
Electrorefining on Solid Aluminium Cathode in
molten chloride
Liquid-Liquid Reductive Extraction in molten
fluoride
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Electrorefining on Solid Al Cathode in molten
chloride
cathode

anode
-
AnFP
An
FP
Ecat
Li/Li
Ln/Lnx
An/Anx
Cl-/Cl2
potentiels
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Electrorefining on Solid Al Cathode in molten
chloride

• Solid aluminium cathode good compromise between
  liquid and solid
• Refreshing of the solid Al surface by periodic
  cathode melting
• To date, 3,7 g of An on 4,6 g of Al with
  U-Pu-An-Ln-Zr-alloy.
• Very high loadings with U-Pu-Zr-alloy , 2.3 g of
  An in 1g of Al (average value 1.9 g)

Optical micrograph (left) and SEM micrograph
(right) of the cross-section of a cathode
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A part of the process... for the chemist
(optimistic)
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Liquid-Liquid Reductive Extraction
Salt LiF/AlF3 Metal Aluminium
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Liquid-Liquid Reductive Extraction
Al
AlCu (78-22 mol)
DCm185/-32 in Al (from Cm traces)
AnF3 and LnF3
AnCl3 and LnCl3
Liquid metal
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FP
Reductive Extraction - Process Approach
precipitation
SaltPF
Salt
FP ?
LLRE
Hydro fluorination
Digestion
SaltAn FP
SaltAn FPMN
Zn
Thermal treatment
Zn MN
Fuel (Oxide)
Al
Al An
distillation
MN
Volatile FP
SaltAn
An (oxide)
Back extraction
precipitation
Salt
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Decontamination
Carbonate precipitation, Phosphate
precipitation Filtration on zeolite
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Waste Conditioning
synthesis and characterisation of
sodalite synthesis and characterisation of
pollucite other matrices (chloroapatite )
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Key issues of Europart in Pyro

• Electrolysis Step in chloride
• Efficiency of a two stage process in LLRE
• Back extraction of actinides from aluminium
• Electrochemical process in fluoride salt
• difficulties in apparatus development
• non reproducible experiments
• need of a real state of the art
• Process modeling and design of specific devices
• Process approach for salt decontamination and
• Waste conditioning
• How to operate the precipitation, the filtration
• from the waste to the sodalite (or other) ?

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ACSEPT General Organisation
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ACSEPT_Domain 2 Objectives (1/2)
To propose reprocessing schemes for which the
scientific feasibility of each technological
brick will be demonstrated (lab-scale), taking
into account the diversity of the possible fuels
of ADS or GenIV fuels (oxide, metal, carbide or
nitride). When several chemical concepts will
be proposed, applicability, performances,
advantages and drawbacks will be described for
each of them. The studies will not be limited
to the actinide recovery. Head-end steps (from
the fuel to the core process steps), salt
purification and recycling as well as specific
waste conditioning will also to be studied.
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ACSEPT_Domain 2 Objectives (2/2)
As the actinide fluxes must be suitable for fuel
refabrication, solutions to recover them from a
salt or a metal under a convenient form (metal,
oxide powder or other) must also be proposed. In
order to be complementary and not to overlap with
dedicated projects on molten salt reactors
(ALISIA and following), the thorium chemistry as
well as any other specific topics of this kind of
reactor will be out of the scope of the FP7
project. As often as possible, links will be
initiated and maintained between FP7 project and
other European projects (FP, ISTC...) for which
either complementarities or interactions will be
identified (MSR, waste disposal)
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ACSEPT_Domain 2 - Structure
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Thank you for your attention
Thank you Charles