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ANS Student Conference 2025
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Latest News
Argonne research aims to improve nuclear fuel recycling and metal recovery
Servis
Scientists at Argonne National Laboratory are investigating a used nuclear fuel recycling technology that could lead to a scaled-down and more efficient approach to metal recovery, according to a recent news article from the lab. The research, led by Argonne radiochemist Anna Servis with funding from the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), could have an impact beyond the nuclear fuel cycle and improve other high-value metal processing, such as rare earth recovery, according to Argonne.
The research: Servis’s work is being carried out under ARPA-E’s CURIE (Converting UNF Radioisotopes Into Energy) program. The specific project—Radioisotope Capture Intensification Using Rotating Packed Bed Contactors—started in 2023 and is scheduled to end in January 2026.
Kieran Dolan, Guiqiu Zheng, David Carpenter, Steven Huang, Lin-Wen Hu
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 76 | Number 4 | May 2020 | Pages 398-403
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2020.1712993
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Advanced reactor applications that use a molten fluoride salt coolant and graphite moderator are under consideration as next-generation energy technologies. For molten salts with lithium or beryllium, such as flibe (2LiF-BeF2), the production of tritium from neutron irradiation is a significant technical challenge. Understanding the expected quantities and mechanisms for tritium retention in graphite is important for designing tritium management strategies in these advanced reactors. In this work, the tritium content of IG-110U graphite from a 2013 in-core flibe irradiation experiment was measured by leaching in water and thermal desorption. Five total samples were tested, with an average measured tritium content per salt-contacting surface area of 3.83 ± 0.25 Ci/m2. The tritium measured from the thermal desorption experiments was primarily in a water-insoluble form. Compared to the overall tritium generation during the irradiation, the total amount of retention in graphite predicted by the desorption measurements is significant.