Key Issues
Advanced Fuel-Cycle Technologies Hold Promise for Used Fuel Management Program
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Looking to the Future
Today’s reprocessing technology—known as PUREX—makes it possible to recycle and reuse the uranium and plutonium from used nuclear fuel. The remaining waste products are mainly unusable fission products, which are mixed with glass for disposal as high-level waste in a process known as vitrification.
The uranium and plutonium separated from used reactor fuel by PUREX reprocessing can be recycled as mixed oxide fuel. France and the United Kingdom currently use this process in a safe and proliferation-resistant manner. The PUREX process produces a plutonium stream that is stored under strict security and safeguards as provided in internationally agreed protocols. Japan has built a reprocessing facility, scheduled to start operating in 2009, that uses a modified PUREX process that mixes uranium with the plutonium product.
Advanced reprocessing systems do not produce a separate plutonium stream. These processes keep uranium, plutonium and other usable elements together, while separating radioactive wastes containing long-lived and short-lived radioisotopes that have no energy value.
One such process, called UREX+, extracts the fission products from used fuel, leaving the remaining plutonium mixed with uranium and other heavy “transuranic” elements. These transu-ranic isotopes are extracted with the plutonium and recycled as fuel for advanced reactors. Like the PUREX technology, UREX+ produces high-level radioactive wastes requiring disposal, consisting mostly of fission products.
Although proven in laboratories, the commercial application of UREX+ is years in the future. The French are developing a process called COEX, which extracts uranium and plutonium together. In the United States, the Department of Energy also is developing other processes, such as “pyroprocessing,” that use metallurgical technology. The private sector is proposing other processes to accomplish the same goal.
Finally, a new generation of reactors would use uranium, plutonium and other elements made available by advanced reprocessing and convert them to shorter-lived, less toxic materials while extracting useful energy. These reactors are some years away from commercial development.
The industry believes that to realize fully the long-term benefits of nuclear energy, the United States and other nations must develop advanced fuel-cycle technologies that will supply recycled fuel when it is appropriate to do so, while reducing the amount of radioactive byproducts requiring disposal in a federal repository.
Looking to the Future
Today’s reprocessing technology—known as PUREX—makes it possible to recycle and reuse the uranium and plutonium from used nuclear fuel. The remaining waste products are mainly unusable fission products, which are mixed with glass for disposal as high-level waste in a process known as vitrification.
The uranium and plutonium separated from used reactor fuel by PUREX reprocessing can be recycled as mixed oxide fuel. France and the United Kingdom currently use this process in a safe and proliferation-resistant manner. The PUREX process produces a plutonium stream that is stored under strict security and safeguards as provided in internationally agreed protocols. Japan has built a reprocessing facility, scheduled to start operating in 2009, that uses a modified PUREX process that mixes uranium with the plutonium product.
Advanced reprocessing systems do not produce a separate plutonium stream. These processes keep uranium, plutonium and other usable elements together, while separating radioactive wastes containing long-lived and short-lived radioisotopes that have no energy value.
One such process, called UREX+, extracts the fission products from used fuel, leaving the remaining plutonium mixed with uranium and other heavy “transuranic” elements. These transu-ranic isotopes are extracted with the plutonium and recycled as fuel for advanced reactors. Like the PUREX technology, UREX+ produces high-level radioactive wastes requiring disposal, consisting mostly of fission products.
Although proven in laboratories, the commercial application of UREX+ is years in the future. The French are developing a process called COEX, which extracts uranium and plutonium together. In the United States, the Department of Energy also is developing other processes, such as “pyroprocessing,” that use metallurgical technology. The private sector is proposing other processes to accomplish the same goal.
Finally, a new generation of reactors would use uranium, plutonium and other elements made available by advanced reprocessing and convert them to shorter-lived, less toxic materials while extracting useful energy. These reactors are some years away from commercial development.
The industry believes that to realize fully the long-term benefits of nuclear energy, the United States and other nations must develop advanced fuel-cycle technologies that will supply recycled fuel when it is appropriate to do so, while reducing the amount of radioactive byproducts requiring disposal in a federal repository.
