Nuclear Science 2018 State-of-the-Art Report on the Progress of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Chemistry Nuclear Science State-of-the-Art Report on the Progress of Nuclear Fuel Cycle Chemistry © OECD 2018 NEA No. 7267 NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 35 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission takes part in the work of the OECD. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards agreed by its members. This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. NUCLEAR ENERGY AGENCY The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) was established on 1 February 1958. Current NEA membership consists of 33 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The European Commission also takes part in the work of the Agency. The mission of the NEA is: – to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through international co- operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally sound and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; – to provide authoritative assessments and to forge common understandings on key issues as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD analyses in areas such as energy and the sustainable development of low-carbon economies. Specific areas of competence of the NEA include the safety and regulation of nuclear activities, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science, economic and technical analyses of the nuclear fuel cycle, nuclear law and liability, and public information. The NEA Data Bank provides nuclear data and computer program services for participating countries. This document, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area. Cor rigenda to OECD publications may be found online at: www.oecd.org/publishing/corrigenda. © OECD 2018 You can copy, download or print OECD content for your own use, and you can include excerpts from OECD publications, databases and multimedia products in your own documents, presentations, blogs, websites and teaching materials, provided that suitable acknowledgement of the OECD as source and copyright owner is given. All requests for public or commercial use and translation rights should be submitted to [email protected]. Requests for permission to photocopy portions of this material for public or commercial use shall be addressed directly to the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) at [email protected] or the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie (CFC) [email protected]. FOREWORD Foreword Under the guidance of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Nuclear Science Committee (NSC), and the mandate of the NEA Working Party on Scientific Issues of the Fuel Cycle (WPFC), the Expert Group on Fuel Recycling Chemistry (EGFRC) was established to perform technical assessments of separation processes relevant to recycling technologies for spent nuclear fuel and assessments of separation processes in applications related to the current and future nuclear fuel cycles. The expert group was also mandated to provide recommendations for collaborative international efforts towards the development of further separation processes. This report presents a comprehensive state of the art on current developments in various separation technologies. It was written in the form of an international review of the different separation processes developed – or under development – in separation chemistry within a number of NEA member countries (France, Japan, Korea, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the European Union). Acknowledgements The NEA Secretariat would like to extend its sincere gratitude to the members of the EGFRC for their contributions to this report, as well as for the valuable time and effort dedicated to this field of work. Special thanks go to P. Baron (France), Chair of the expert group. Thanks are also extended to E. Collins (United States) for his review and helpful suggestions. STATE-OF-THE-ART REPORT ON THE PROGRESS OF NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE CHEMISTRY, NEA No. 7267, © OECD 2018 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents List of abbreviations and acronyms ..........................................................................................13 Executive summary ......................................................................................................................19 1. Introduction ...............................................................................................................................23 2. Progress of separation technology and current achievements ........................................25 2.1. Head-end processing ..........................................................................................................25 2.2. Hydrometallurgy .................................................................................................................45 2.3. Pyrochemical processess .................................................................................................140 3. Process criteria ........................................................................................................................227 3.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................227 3.2. Feeds to the recycling plant(s) ........................................................................................227 3.3. Products required from the recycling plant(s) ..............................................................229 3.4. Performance criteria required from the recycling plant(s) .........................................231 3.5. Constraints placed on the recycling plant(s) ................................................................231 3.6. Nonproliferation requirements for recycling components of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) ..................................................................................................233 3.7. Choice of separation process ..........................................................................................238 3.8. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................238 4. Comparison of chemical processes .....................................................................................241 4.1. Introduction .......................................................................................................................241 4.2. Head-end processes ..........................................................................................................243 4.3. Aqueous processes ...........................................................................................................248 4.4. Pyrochemical processes ...................................................................................................271 4.5. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................277 5. Perspectives for future R&D ..................................................................................................281 5.1. France .................................................................................................................................281 5.2. Japan ...................................................................................................................................282 5.3. Korea ...................................................................................................................................283 5.4. Russia ..................................................................................................................................284 5.5. United Kingdom ................................................................................................................286 5.6. United States .....................................................................................................................288