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The human factor in licensing and operating the next generation of nuclear plants
As human factors specialists working at the intersection of human performance and nuclear operations, we are witnessing one of the nuclear sector’s most significant transitions in decades. The emergence of small modular reactors, microreactors, and other advanced designs is reshaping the industry’s landscape. Digital instrumentation and controls, passive safety systems, and increased automation are creating opportunities for greater safety margins and more flexible operation. These same features also fundamentally redefine what it means to “operate” a nuclear plant. Interactions among human roles, automation, and passive systems shape how people maintain awareness, exercise judgment, and intervene when necessary. These developments affect both operational realities and the regulatory foundations on which nuclear safety is built.
Takatoshi Hijikata, Masahiro Sakata, Hajime Miyashiro, Kensuke Kinoshita, Tatsuhiro Higashi, Tadaharu Tamai
Nuclear Technology | Volume 115 | Number 1 | July 1996 | Pages 114-121
Technical Note | Enrichment and Reprocessing System | doi.org/10.13182/NT96-A35280
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
High-level radioactive waste (HLW) from reprocessing (Purex) light water reactor spent fuel contains a small number of long-lived nuclides, mainly actinide elements, having half-lives of longer than one million years. If actinide elements could be separated from HLW and transmuted to short-lived nuclides, not only would waste management be much simpler but also public support for nuclear power generation might be easier to obtain. Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Japan, has proposed a pyrometallurgical process to separate actinides from HLW. When the solvent used in the Purex process is reclaimed by NaCO3 and NaOH, a waste stream containing sodium with fission products and actinides is produced also. The focus of CRIEPI is the disposal of HLW from both the Purex and the solvent rinse processes. In this concept, HLW is converted to chlorides, the actinides as molten chlorides are reduced by lithium metal and extracted into liquid cadmium, and finally, the actinides are purified by electrorefining. However, in the extraction of actinides into liquid cadmium, some of the rare earth elements are expected to be recovered together with the actinides because of their chemical similarity. Thus, it is necessary to obtain thermodynamic data of the actinides and rare earth elements in molten chlorides and liquid cadmium. The distribution coefficients for uranium, neptunium, and rare earth elements are determined in molten LiCl-KCl eutectic salt/liquid cadmium (LiCl-KCl system) and molten LiCl-NaCl salt/liquid cadmium (LiCl-NaCl system) systems. The equilibrium distribution of uranium, neptunium, and rare earth elements is also calculated based on the Gibbs energies of formation of the metal chlorides and their activity coefficients in molten salts and cadmium.