Mobile Melt-Dilute Treatment for Russian Spent Nuclear Fuel

摘要

Treatment of spent Russian fuel using a Melt-Dilute (MD) process is proposed to consolidate fuel assemblies into a form that is proliferation resistant and provides criticality safety under storage and disposal configurations. Russian fuel elements contain a variety of fuel meat and cladding materials. The Melt-Dilute treatment process was initially developed for aluminum-based fuels so additional development is needed for several cladding and fuel meat combinations in the Russian fuel inventory (e.g. zirconium-clad, uranium-zirconium alloy fuel). A Mobile Melt-Dilute facility (MMD) is being proposed for treatment of spent fuels at reactor site storage locations in Russia; thereby, avoiding the costs of building separate treatment facilities at each site and avoiding shipment of enriched fuel assemblies over the road.