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Researchers recycle nuclear waste into fuel
 Researchers recycle nuclear waste into fuel 7/14/2008 Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee have discovered a way to recycle pieces of old nuclear fuel, transforming them into fuel pellets for nuclear reactors. The research is being conducted as part of the Bush administration's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. The purpose of this program is to find ways to produce more energy while decreasing nuclear waste and the risk of weapons proliferation. According to Jeff Binder, the GNEP program manager at Oak Ridge, ORNL’s researchers were able to chemically extract the ingredients for making the fuel pellets from spent nuclear fuel without isolating plutonium. This is important, Binder said, because of concern that plutonium could be diverted from fuel reprocessing and used instead for making nuclear bombs. Elisabeth Walker and Ray Vedder of ORNL's Nuclear Science & Technology Division said they used a process called “co-extraction” to separate plutonium, neptunium and uranium from spent nuclear fuel. After that, the pair used an ORNL-developed technique called “modified direct denitration” to convert the nuclear material from a solution in nitric acid into a solid oxide powder. The powder was then pressed and sintered to form fuel pellets. Binder called the transformation of spent fuel into fuel pellets “a significant milestone” for GNEP. He explained that the spent fuel had come from the Dresden Nuclear Power Plant in Illinois and said studies were currently being conducted to further evaluate the mixed-oxide pellets’ structure and properties. When asked how the fuel pellets might be used, Binder said they would be suitable for powering a light-water nuclear reactor. In future tests, however, he said he planned to increase the pellets’ fissionable material to a level that would make them useable in other types of reactors. ORNL is carrying out its work with radioactive materials in heavily shielded hot cells at the Radiochemical Engineering Development Center . Used nuclear fuel is stored at reactor sites throughout the nation. << Back to News Join our online discussion forum and comment on this article!
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