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Treatment and Recycling of Spent Nuclear Fuel

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Treatment and Recycling of Spent Nuclear Fuel Couvmono6GB.qxd 29/05/09 20:33 Page 1 Commissariat à l’énergie atomique Commissariat à l’énergie atomique e-den A Nuclear Energy Division Monograph e-den Even as civil nuclear energy is experiencing a real resurgence in interest, there is a need also to know A Nuclear Energy Division precisely what is involved in the issue, whether it be nuclear energy itself, or the associated science, and Monograph technology. And yet, overviews, evidencing a good scientific level, as regards this type of energy, are scarce… To make good this virtual absence, and highlight its own work in due manner, the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA: Commissariat à l’énergie atomique) is setting out, in the form of short mono- graphs, a comprehensive overview of its own ongoing research, in the area of civil nuclear energy. Such research being diverse, and multidisciplinary, this series of CEA monographs explores, and surveys topics as varied, if complementary, as the reactors of the future, nuclear fuel, materials under irradiation, Treatment and recycling or nuclear waste… Aimed both at scientists hailing from other areas of expertise, wishing to appraise themselves of the of spent nuclear fuel issues at hand, and a wider public, interested in learning about the present, and future technological envi- Actinide partitioning – Application to waste management ronment, these CEA monographs set out the recent findings from research, together with their context, and the challenges they involve. Treatment and recycling of spent nuclear fuel Actinide partitioning – ubsequent to its in-reactor dwell time, spent fuel still Application to waste S contains large amounts of materials that are recoverable, management fuel of spent nuclear reatment and recycling for value-added energy purposes (uranium, plutonium), T together with fission products, and minor actinides, these making up the residues from nuclear reactions. The treatment and recycling of spent nuclear fuel, as implemented in France, entail that such materials be chemically partitioned. The development of the process involved, and its deployment on an industrial scale stand as a high achievement of French science, and technology. Treatment and recycling allow both a satisfactory manage- ment of nuclear waste to be implemented, and substantial savings, in terms of fissile material. Bolstered of late as it has been, due to spectacularly skyrocketing uranium prices, this strategy is bound to become indispensable, with the advent of the next generation of fast reactors. This Monograph surveys the chemical process used for spent fuel treatment, and its variants, both current, and € future. It outlines currently ongoing investigations, setting 18 ISBN 978-2-281-11377-8 out the challenges involved, and recent results obtained by ISSN pending CEA. 9:HSMCSB=VVX\\]: Mono6CEA_GB.qxd 29/05/09 20:24 Page 2 DEN Monographs A Nuclear Energy Division Monograph Commissariat à l’énergie atomique, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France) Phone: + 33 (0)1 64 50 10 00 Scientific Committee Michel Beauvy, Georges Berthoud, Mireille Defranceschi, Gérard Ducros, Yannick Guérin, Christian Latgé, Yves Limoge, Charles Madic, Philippe Moisy, Gérard Santarini, Jean-Marie Seiler, Pierre Sollogoub, Étienne Vernaz, Research Directors. Topic editor: Michaël Lecomte Contributors to articles in this Monograph: Eric Abonneau, Pascal Baron, Claude Berthon, Laurence Berthon, Alain Béziat, Isabelle Bisel, Lucie Bonin, Emilie Bossé, Bernard Boullis, Jean-Charles Broudic, Marie-Christine Charbonnel, Nathalie Chauvin, Christophe Den Auwer, Binh Dinh, Jean Duhamet, Jean-Michel Escleine, Stéphane Grandjean, Philippe Guilbaud, Denis Guillaneux, Dominique Guillaumont, Clément Hill, Jérôme Lacquement, Michel Masson, Manuel Miguirditchian, Philippe Moisy, Michel Pelletier, Alain Ravenet, Christine Rostaing, Vincent Royet, Alexandre Ruas, Éric Simoni, Christian Sorel, Aimé Vaudano, Laurent Venault, Dominique Warin, Alain Zaetta. Executive Publisher: Philippe Pradel. Editorial Committee: Bernard Bonin (Editor in chief), Bernard Bouquin, Martine Dozol, Michaël Lecomte, Alain Forestier Manager: Fanny Bazile Editor: Jean-François Parisot. Layout: Pierre Finot. English translation: Jean-François Roberts Correspondence: all correspondence to be addressed to the Editor, or to CEA/DEN, Direction scientifique, CEA Saclay 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex (France). Phone: + 33 (0)1 69 08 16 75 © CEA Saclay and Groupe Moniteur (Éditions du Moniteur), Paris, 2008 ISBN 978-2-281-11377-8 ISSN pending All information contained in the present document may be freely reproduced, in whole or in part, subject to agreement by the editors and mention of the source. Cover: Nicolas Poussin, The Abduction of the Sabines (L’Enlèvement des Sabines) (1637–1638). Musée du Louvre, Paris (all rights reserved). Mono6CEA_GB.qxd 29/05/09 20:24 Page 3 Commissariat à l’énergie atomique e-den A Nuclear Energy Division Monograph Treatment and recycling of spent nuclear fuel Actinide partitioning – Application to waste management Mono6CEA_GB.qxd 29/05/09 20:24 Page 4 This Monograph is dedicated to the memory of Charles Madic (8 August 1942–1 March 2008), a research scientist of world renown, who stood behind some major advances in the field of actinide par- titioning. Charles MADIC devoted his life, as a made a decisive contribution to the renaissance of research scientist, to the service of radio- pyrochemistry studies in France, the use of synchro- chemistry, and the physicochemistry of tron radiation to probe actinide compounds, and the actinides, in particular those present in coming together of theoretical physical chemists, and spent nuclear fuel. After brilliantly com- experimental radiochemists, to bring about a consis- pleting his studies at the Science Faculty, tent approach to enhanced partitioning, reaching Paris University (subsequently Paris-VI beyond uranium and plutonium separation, to achieve University), crowned by a PhD (1967), that of neptunium, americium, and curium. Charles Madic started on his career at CEA (1969), ultimately being awarded a On the European scene, Charles Madic made his State Doctor’s degree in Physical mark as a natural leader of research programs for the Sciences (1975), for his work on “The development of new enhanced partitioning processes. influence of the addition of carboxylic He thus acted as coordinator, successively, of the acids on the extraction of actinides by trilaurylamine nitrate.” From NEWPART (1996–1999), PARTNEW (2001–2003), and the start of his research work at the CEA research center at EUROPART (2004–2007) programs, disseminating his knowl- Fontenay-aux-Roses, near Paris, he became interested in the edge, and strategic vision, bringing together the work of some issues raised by the chemical separation of actinide elements, and thirty research organization across Europe, and making possible fission products, both with regard to fundamental research, and the carrying forward of a collective enterprise, outstanding in its applications for the purposes of radionuclide preparation, and breadth, and the quality of its results. This is how the remarkable purification. This time in his life, particularly full and intense as it properties were discovered, and put to use, of polynitrogen lig- was, gave Charles Madic a grounding in the more complex ands of the bis-triazinyl pyridine family, for the selective separa- aspects of fuel cycle chemistry, which was to enable him, through- tion of trivalent actinides. out his career, to pursue a very broad range of activities. In the field of spent fuel treatment, his work made possible, on the one As the author of more than 170 publications, and 11 patents, his hand, development of the oxidizing dissolution process for pluto- work on the chemistry of actinides earned him the award of the nium oxide, and, on the other hand, the condensing into a single Ivan Peychès Prize, by the French Académie des Sciences, in step of the partitioning of uranium, and plutonium. This work 2005. yielded the processes currently used at the La Hague (France) plant. In the field of radioactive waste management, his work led As a research director at CEA, and a professor at the French to the separation processes for americium, and curium which National Institute for Nuclear Sciences and Technology (INSTN), presently stand as the reference processes, being considered for Charles Madic left his imprint on an entire generation of research the purposes of the future transmutation of these radioelements. scientists, imparting to them his enthusiasm, and his passion for scientific research, through his oversight of numerous PhD disser- His range of expertise, and visionary turn of mind led him, under tations, and his teaching activities. the aegis of the French Act of 1991 on radioactive waste manage- ment research, to set up a community of physical chemists, within Charles Madic will remain, in the memory of his colleagues, as an the PRACTIS research group (1995), which brought together altogether remarkable person, in terms of his personal, human about a hundred research scientists, investigating the properties qualities, and as an exceptional research scientist, as witnessed of actinides, and other radioelements in solutions, and at inter- by his scientific influence. faces. Through the impulse he gave to this group, Charles Madic Robert GUILLAUMONT, of the Académie des Sciences, Philippe PRADEL, CEA, Nuclear Energy Division Mono6CEA_GB.qxd 29/05/09 20:24 Page 5 Foreword After getting off to a headlong start in the 1950s, when,
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