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Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
Donald J. Reif
Nuclear Technology | Volume 83 | Number 2 | November 1988 | Pages 190-196
Technical Paper | Chemical Processing | doi.org/10.13182/NT88-A34160
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Solvent extraction processes are used to recover usable nuclear materials from unwanted fission products at the Savannah River Plant. During use, the tri-n-butyl phosphate in an n-paraffm hydrocarbon solvent is degraded due to hydrolysis and radiolysis, forming materials that influence product losses, product decontamination, and separation efficiencies. The solvent is recycled after cleaning with a sodium carbonate solution. Savannah River Laboratory work has shown that carbonate washing does not remove more solvent-soluble binding ligands (formed by solvent degradation), which extract fission products into the solvent. Activated alumina treatment of carbonate-washed solvent removes binding ligands and significantly improves recycled solvent performance. A laboratory-developed, side-stream-activated alumina process was scaled up to clean 16500 gal of first-cycle solvent. The improved solvent fission product rejection returned the Savannah River Plant Canyon process to normal productivity and reduced process salt waste by increasing the solvent wash solution use-life.