Uranium Recovery for Spent Fuel by Dissolution in Fused Salt and Fluorination

A promising nonaqueous process for the recovery of uranium from spent fuel elements is under development at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This process consists of dissolution of the fuel element in a fluoride melt by hydrofluorination at 600 to 700°C, direct fluorination with fluorine for the production and volatilization of UF₆, with further decontamination of the product UF₆ from fission product activity being secured in a NaF absorption-desorption step. Good decontamination is obtained in the fluorination step due to the low volatility of most of the fission product fluorides. An over-all decontamination factor greater than 10⁶ with adequate uranium recovery has been demonstrated in laboratory scale tests using a double bed procedure for the NaF step. A pilot plant has been constructed for testing the process with various heterogeneous fuel elements. The engineering and operational features of the pilot plant are described.