Electrolytic dissolution studies on (Th, Pu)O_2

摘要

A challenging problem encountered in the fuel reprocessing is the dissolution of refractory fuel materials such as PuO_2 and ThO_2 Chemical dissolution of these materials employing concentrated nitric acid and HF suffers from several limitations such as (i) the corrosive nature of fluoride, (ii) high temperature/pressure requirements, (iii) kinetically sluggish nature, and (iv) non selectivity. During the fabrication of proposed driver fuel (Th, 3.5 percent Pu) O_2 for Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR), a significant amount of Pu may be held up in the fabrication scrap. There is a need, therefore, to develop a separation scheme for the recovery of Pu from such scrap.