P.R.Vasudeva Rao. R&D for Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle at IGCAR

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1 R&D for Fast Reactor Fuel Cycle at IGCAR P.R.Vasudeva Rao Director Chemistry, Metallurgy and Materials Groups Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research Kalpakkam, India Asian nuclear prospect 2008

2 Strategies for Fuel Cycle Fuel cycle facilities to cater to two or more reactors: economy of scale Enhanced burn-up (200,000 MWd/t) : lower quantities of fuel to be processed per MW of electricity Minimum cooling time, matching fuel handling intervals of reactor: reduced out-of-pile inventory, better utilisation of valuable fissile material Reduced waste production through optimisation of flow sheets for fabrication and reprocessing Recovery of minor actinides and valuable fission products: reduced waste volume, with added societal benefits

3 Uranium Plutonium Carbide Fuel for FBTR Mark I Fuel: (U 0.3, Pu 0.7 )C Mark II Fuel: U 0.45 Pu 0.55 C The Mark I fuel has reached 155 GWd/t burn-up without any fuel pin failure

4 Carbide Fuel Cycle of FBTR Fuel fabricated at BARC Thermal conductivity Laser Vaporisation Mass spectrometry Comprehensive Post-Irradiation Examination was carried out at various burn-up values to understand the fuel behaviour and obtain safety clearances for enhancing burn-up Fuel discharged from FBTR with burn-up up to 150 GWd/t has been reprocessed, for closing the fuel cycle Capacity to develop, ab-initio, new fuel concepts and closing the fuel cycle with benchmark performance indices

5 R & D on Carbide Fuel Cycle Thermophysical properties of high Pu content fuel (first measurements) Thermal conductivity, Carbon potential Thermochemical Modeling: Oxygen limit to reduce Pu volatility during fabrication Carbon potential, Pu segregation, CO pressure Post-irradiation examination in inert atmosphere hot cells: destructive and non-destructive Reprocessing flow sheet: dissolution behaviour, third phase formation

6 PIE Facilities for Performance Assessment of FBTR Fuel LASER DISMANTLING OF IRRADIATED FSA SMALL SPECIMEN TEST EQUIPMENT (BI) REMOTE CNC MACHINE HIGH TEMPERATURE REMOTE TENSILE TEST MACHINE HOT CELL FACILITY (INERT ATMOSPHERE) METROLOGY & NDT EQUIPMENTS REMOTE METALLOGRAPHY U 233 FUELLED REACTOR FOR N-RADIOGRAPHY FISSION GAS EXTRACTION & ANALYSIS

7 Comprehensive R & D in Fast reactor Fuel Reprocessing Extractants for fuel reprocessing Extractants for MA recovery Extractants / resins for recovery of valuable fission products Development of novel contactors, pumps and metering equipment Extensive use of Modeling and Simulation for extraction processes and equipment performance Materials development for longer for Purex process plant life

8 Fast reactor Fuel Reprocessing : Extractants Extractants for Purex process Higher homologues of Tributyl Phosphate (like Triiso-Amyl Phosphate) Long chain dialkyl amides (DOHA etc.) Extractants for MA recovery CMPO Amides Extractants / resins for recovery of selected fission products 16-stage ejector mixersettler for flow sheet development

9 Alternate Trialkyl phosphates for fast reactor fuel reprocessing A variety of trialkyl phosphates synthesised and comprehensively characterised ( extraction behaviour, radiation and chemical degradation) Bulk synthesis of Tri-n-amyl phosphate Mixer settler runs under progress RO- Group O O O O O RO- Group O O O O Triamyl phosphate: a candidate for fast reactor fuel reprocessing

10 Room temperature ionic liquids for actinide and fission product recovery Exploiting unique properties of RTILs to reduce waste generation (Ex-El process) Use of RTILs in place of high temperature molten salts for electrorefining of metal fuels Use of RTILs for treatment of waste- eg. Recovery from waste

11 Solvent Extraction Modeling SIMPSEX (SIMulation Program for Solvent EXtraction) : nuclear SX of U, Pu and Nitric acid in FBR fuel reprocessing flowsheets. PUThEX : Uranium separation from Th SIMPACTR: Code for simulation of actinide recovery. SIMPUREXAE: Code for PUREX process with Alternate Extractant Maximum Pu Conc. g/l Strip 2 (4N Acid), Base Flow Strip 1 (0.01 N Acid), Base Flow Variation of Max. Pu Concentration in the HC contactor Extensive validation of Computer Codes by from experimental data in the literature

12 Waste Management Simplification of process routes for reducing waste volumes Development of processes for recovery of minor actinides and fission products (eg. Pd, Cs) from HLW Use of green processes such as SFE for waste treatment Development of glass and ceramic matrices for immobilisation

13 Partitioning of actinides from HLW Synthesis and characterisation of CMPO & DMDOHEMA: Purification method developed for CMPO Bulk synthesis achieved Extraction studies & Third phase formation studies carried out Mixer settler experiments with CMPO and TODGA in process Experiments with HLW from FBTR fuel reprocessing by Jan 2009 Separation of An and Ln: 1,6-Bis triazynyl pyridine syntheised and characterised Chromatographic studies on Am/Ln separations in process

14 Supercritical Fluid Extraction (SFE) Lab scale SFE facility established in glove box Quantitative extraction of U,Pu and Am from Recovery of Pu 100. tissue waste demonstrated Extraction of silicone oil from fuel microspheres (produced in sol-gel process) established Solvent-free route developed for SFE using solid extractants Recovery of residual actinides and fission products from salt waste of pyrochemical process Pu Recovery (%) Pu(III) SC-CO 2 +CMPO for extrn Extraction Period (min) SFE Facility in Glove Box

15 Iron Phosphate Glass for Fast Reactor Waste High loading (20 wt %) of waste demonstrated using simulated HLW Low volatility of Cesium Low leaching rate Difficult elements such as Pd don t segregate Conditions for glass formation & physical properties of glass : better than BSG Weight (%) T (µv) Arb. units IP F W IP G Θ Fig. 1 XRD pattern of the IPG and IPFW DTA IP F W T g Crystallisation tem perature TGA m e ltin g tem perature T / K Fig. 2 TG A/DTA curve of IPG and IPFW time / min Fig. 8 Weight (%) of the IP5C5 glass as a function of time (min.)

16 High level waste immobilisation Ceramic waste matrices development- 100g size monoliths fabricated and characterised Studies show that Synroc C is efficient for immobilising high level waste Bulk synthesis (kg) & fabrication of Synroc monoliths containing simulated HLW expected from FBTR under progress Cans with simulated synroc after hot isostatic pressing

17 Palladium recovery from HLW Polyvinyl pyridine based resin developed indigenously Palladium quantitatively extracted from nitric acid medium RTIL based extractionelectrodeposition process Studies also under progress for recovery of Cs and Sr from waste

18 Sol-gel Vibrocompaction # Facility for fabrication of test fuel pins through sol-gel / sphere-pac route Welding station Hardware loading station # First test pins of MOX fuel to be introduced in FBTR in Dec # Sphere-pac pin with two fractions, (770 µm MOX microspheres and 115 µm UO 2 microspheres) Microsphere filling & vibrocompaction station # Coarse fraction fabricated using silicone oil column; Fine fraction fabricated by jet entrainment method Vibrocompaction and welding set up of the test fuel pin fabrication facility # Test pins with minor actinides will be fabricated for irradiation in FBTR

19 Areas of R & D 1.Fuel Fabrication including sodium bonding 2. Studies on fuel properties 3. Fuel Reprocessing by pyrochemical routes 4. Irradiation programme including recycled fuels 5. Development of technology for waste arising out of pyrochemical processes Metallic Fuel

20 Metallic fuel Development # Development of sodium bonded, injection cast, U Pu-6 %Zr ternary alloy # Development of Mechanically bonded, U-Pu binary alloy fuel, clad with and without coating # Measurement of thermophysical properties, (Cp, K) # Test fuel pin irradiations from FBTR 2009 # Facility for fabrication of metal fuel pins on a regular basis for FBTR # Design of fuel initiated at IGCAR

21 R & D for Pyrochemical Reprocessing Molten salt electrorefining: modeling as well as experimentation being pursued Development of corrosion resistant materials and coatings Current (ma) I a2 Zr/Zr K Equipment development (electrorefiner, consolidation system..) Molten salt loops for long term corrosion studies on materials Studies on room temperature ionic liquids as alternates for molten salts I c2 Zr 2+ /Zr Potential (V) vs Ag(I)/Ag Cyclic Voltammograms of Zr ions in LiCl-KCl at 798 K, in presence of Zr metal, show only Zr 2+ ions ; Zr 4+ ions are absent Unexposed 1000 hrs Partially stabilised Zirconia coatings on steel after 1000 h exposure to salt XRD of glass-bonded sodalite wasteform

22 Alfred Nobel: born Oct. 21, 1833 If I have a thousand ideas and only one turns out to be good, I am satisfied. THANK YOU