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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.
R. Gangradey, J. Mishra, S. Mukherjee, P. Nayak, P. Panchal, J. Agarwal, V. Gupta
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 77 | Number 5 | July 2021 | Pages 333-339
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/15361055.2021.1904770
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A cryopump works on the principle of cooling down a metal surface or a surface coated with a porous material, namely, cryopanels, to cryogenic temperature. The gases stick to cryopanels thus lowering pressure and thereby creating a vacuum in an enclosed space. Materials used in the development of cryopumps include metals like copper and steel as structural materials, composite material like G10 for supports, thermal insulation, adhesive to fix sorbent to the metal surface, Vespel as an insulator, and various kinds of coatings on metal surfaces. Thermal properties govern heat load management and thereby the temperature of the cryopanels and hence pumping phenomena. This paper focuses on the experimental investigation of properties like specific heat, thermal diffusivity, thermal conductivity of materials, and their variation with lowering of temperature to cryogenic levels. A study was carried out to quantify the thermal properties of adhesive to fix the sorbent, the metal sheet of the cryopanel coated with activated charcoal granules using the adhesive, materials like G10 and Vespel, and high-emissivity black coating. The thermal conductivity (studied up to −150°C) for different kinds of adhesives was found to be in the range of 0.48 to 0.9 W/m‧K; for Vespel SP21 and G10, it is 0.58 and 0.8 W/m‧K, respectively. The emissivity at room temperature of the sorbent-coated cryopanels was 0.94, and for the high-emissivity black coating, it was in the range of 0.93 to 0.94.