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AssigneesHitachi, Ltd., The Tokyo Electric Power Company, Incorporated
InventorsFumio Kawamura, Kuniyoshi Hoshino, Masakatsu Aoi, Akira Sasahira, Osamu Amano, Hiroaki Kobayashi
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It is an object to increase a reprocessing speed of spent nuclear fuel and to obtain uranium having a high purity and a plutonium mixture reusable as it is at a low cost through a simple procedure. The spent nuclear fuel 1 is subjected to fluorination using fluorine 2 in a fluorination step 3, and as a result, uranium, a mixture of uranium and plutonium and a fission product are separated and recovered independently of one another. The plutonium fluoride volatilized in the fluorination is recovered along with a fixing agent and then passed through an oxidative conversion step 8, thereby recovering a mixture of uranium and plutonium oxides 9. Since the uranium can be recovered in a high purity, it is managed very easily when reused or saved. Further, since the uranium and plutonium are recovered as a mixture thereof, fuel reproduction cost is decreased and prevention of proliferation is strengthened.
A method for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, which comprises a fluorination step of applying fluorine to spent nuclear fuel powder to cause volatilization and a removal step of removing a plutonium fluoride from fluorides volatilized in the foregoing fluorination step,
A method for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, which comprises a fluorination step of applying fluorine to spent nuclear fuel powder to cause volatilization and a removal step of removing a plutonium fluoride from fluorides volatilized in the foregoing fluorination step,
A method for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, which comprises a fluorination step of applying fluorine to spent nuclear fuel powder obtained through decladding of spent nuclear fuel to cause volatilization, a fixation step of fixing a plutonium fluoride among fluorides volatilized in the foregoing fluorination step, a step of refining a uranium fluoride, a removal step of removing the aforementioned fixed plutonium fluoride, and an oxidative conversion step of applying water vapor and hydrogen to the removed plutonium fluoride, thereby converting the fluoride into its oxide,
A method for spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, which comprises a fluorination step of applying fluorine to spent nuclear fuel powder obtained through decladding of spent nuclear fuel to cause volatilization, a fixation step of fixing a plutonium fluoride among fluorides volatilized in the foregoing fluorination step, a step of refining a uranium fluoride, a removal step of removing the aforementioned fixed plutonium fluoride, a re-fluorination step of applying fluorine to the removed plutonium fluoride to cause re-fluorination, and a gas phase hydrolysis step of applying water vapor and hydrogen to the gaseous plutonium fluoride obtained through re-fluorination in the re-fluorination step, thereby converting the fluoride into its oxide,
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.