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Nuclear Energy Conference & Expo (NECX)
September 8–11, 2025
Atlanta, GA|Atlanta Marriott Marquis
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Spent fuel transfer project completed at INL
Work crews at Idaho National Laboratory have transferred 40 spent nuclear fuel canisters into long-term storage vaults, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management has reported.
H. S. Levine, E. J. Nowak
Nuclear Technology | Volume 36 | Number 1 | November 1977 | Pages 106-119
Radiation Environments in Nuclear Reactor Power Plant | Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT77-A31964
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A new method for management of waste Zircaloy fuel hulls is proposed as an alternative to compaction and burial. It involves using the waste as a feedstock in a chemical process for preparing inorganic zirconate ion exchange material. Enough zirconate could be prepared from the waste hulls to stabilize all the high-level liquid waste generated in light water reactor fuel reprocessing, and in this way the two waste streams would be combined. The proposed conversion operation would involve chlorination of the Zircaloy waste with NH4Cl and distillation of volatile chlorides, reaction of the distillate with isopropyl alcohol to form intermediate alkoxides, and hydrolysis of the intermediate to form the zirconate. The conversion would be accomplished with recycle of all reagents so that no new major waste stream would be created. The chemical basis for the conversion process, simplified process flowsheets, and an analysis of the various options illustrate the feasibility of the full-scale process. A preliminary economic study was made that indicated that the full-scale operation should be technically and economically feasible.