Student Abstracts: Waste Management at ANL

Decontamination Factors for the Mark-IV and Mark-V Electrorefiners. OLIVER EAGLE (Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401) BRIAN WESTPHAL (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439) .
This paper explores the decontamination factors from treating nuclear fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) via electrometallurgical treatment (EMT). Decontamination factors are a measure of the removal of an impurity from material that is desired for reuse. To calculate decontamination factors, composition data was used from before and after spent material was processed in the Mark-IV and Mark-V electrorefiners in the Fuel Conditioning Facility (FCF). Decontamination factors are particularly useful in the area of fuel recycling because they effectively show the reduction of contaminants to very low levels. For the EMT process they are useful as a comparison to other separation technologies both past and present, as well as to examine changes in process variables which affect performance. Although decontamination factors for EMT are not quite as favorable as some other technologies the EMT process requires less infrastructure and thus has considerable economic advantages.

Characterization of Mark IV and Mark V Electrorefiners. JARED BARBER (Montana State University-Bozeman, Bozeman, MT 59717) HUMBERTO GARCIA (Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL 60439) .
Concern over uranium depletion drove the US to investigate the possibility of fast reactors and plutonium fuel production in industry. Electrorefiners were developed at first in the late eighties to assist in this end but then, with fear of nuclear proliferation, they were made to assist in clean and efficient disposal of radioactive wastes from fast reactors. In the United States efforts to develop such electrorefiners have resulted in two electrorefiners which were built at Argonne National Laboratory-West. In an attempt to understand how to improve the performance of the electrorefiners, characterization of the process was undertaken. Many experimental runs were made with the level of factors and responses being recorded. Using statistical analysis techniques, these factors and responses were leafed through in order to find important factors that would help improve the electrorefiners' performance. The findings suggest that agitation and decreasing anode loading may help to improve the Mark V Electrorefiner's performance. Also higher average cell voltage, lower average current, and lower maximum cell voltage may help to improve the Mark IV Electrorefiner's performance. Many improvements can be made to enable better statistical analysis. In addition, further statistical analysis could help to find more useful relationships in the future.