Spent Nuclear Fuel Separation With the Archimedes Plasma Mass Filter

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) and the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) programs are searching for (1) separations technologies for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and (2) devices that allow for fission product separation of highly radioactive, low-atomic-mass isotopes from spent transuranic and minor actinide wastes, and that are compatible with the UREX+ process. The innovative, plasma-based, Archimedes Filter Technology (AFT) is an attractive option for SNF recycling because it can separate fission products from actinides by mass without explicit separation of plutonium. Recent research also has shown that the AFT could be of great benefit to the UREX+ process. However, implementation of the AFT requires development of a technique for vaporizing SNF for injection into the Filter device. This project will develop this vaporization source, which will be critical for a demonstration of the existing full scale prototype. Numerical simulations in Phase I demonstrated that the AFT has the potential to separate actinides from fission products with sufficient throughput and separation quality to be of benefit to the UREX+ process. The tasks defined the feed basis, used that feed to determine the relative decontamination factors for collisional versus collisionless operation of a commercial AFT, and determined the optimal operating parameters. In Phase II, a vaporization technique for feeding SNF to the main AFT plasma will be developed, and a more efficient neutral collector, which will improve the decontamination of the heavy actinide product, will be designed. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: Separation by mass would produce a proliferation-resistant actinide product that can be burned in a reactor. Furthermore, by removing actinides from fission products, the long term capacity of a geologic repository for these products would be greatly expanded.