FFTF fuel being sent to Idaho for possible recycling
ANNETTE CARY HERALD STAFF WRITER
Hanford has begun to ship sodium-bonded fuel from its Fast Flux Test Facility to Idaho to have the uranium extracted for possible reuse by commercial nuclear power plants.
It's the most recent step in deactivating the research reactor to allow it to be put into a long-term surveillance and maintenance mode at minimum cost. The federal government has so far found no use for the reactor that top officials consider cost effective, although FFTF supporters recently have proposed it be used for research for reprocessing fuel as part of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership.
"The sodium-bonded fuel is the last remaining fuel at FFTF," said Al Farabee, the Department of Energy's FFTF federal project director.
The first of 11 planned shipments by truck to the Idaho National Laboratory began in October and the shipments are expected to be completed in May. Just two shipment casks are available, and shipments will not be made in wintery weather.
FFTF workers have been focusing on staging the sodium-bonded fuel, handling it and getting it into the casks over the past six months to start the shipping program, Farabee said.
FFTF's 375 fuel assemblies without sodium bonding already have been moved out of FFTF into storage in central Hanford. They will be considered for disposal at Yucca Mountain, Nev., although no decision has been made.
The sodium-bonded fuel was a later design for use in the reactor, which operated from 1982 to 1992. Melted sodium was poured around the fuel pellets inside each fuel pin to conduct heat from plutonium and uranium. The sodium bonded the pellet to the cladding.
Unused and irradiated sodium-bonded fuel is being shipped to Idaho in steel and lead-shielded casks that are sealed airtight. The casks have been tested to normal standards for nuclear fuel shipments, including withstanding a four-hour jet fuel fire and a drop onto a hard surface from 30 feet.
At the Idaho National Laboratory, the fuel will be stored inside the Hot Fuel Examination Facility until it is scheduled to be processed beginning in fiscal year 2009, according to the Department of Energy in Idaho. Processing is expected to take two years.
The uranium will be extracted at the Fuel Conditioning Facility using an electro-metallurgical treatment process. The rods will be cut into pieces, dissolved in a bath of molten chemical salts and subjected to an electric current. The uranium from the fuel should gather on a steel rod inserted into the molten salt.
The extracted uranium 235 then will be blended with uranium 238 and cast into ingots. Waste from the process will include steel from the fuel tubes that will be melted into ingots for eventual disposal at Yucca Mountain. Small amounts of other radioactive substances, such as americium and plutonium, will be captured in the molten salt, which will be formed into ceramic ingots for disposal.
The Idaho National Laboratory uses the same process for spent nuclear fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II. Its fuel is similar in composition and design to FFTF's fuel. Uranium from the fuel of both reactors will be stored until a customer is found for it, according to DOE.
At FFTF, all sodium used in the reactor's cooling systems has been removed from the reactor and is being stored at FFTF. The sodium, which includes radioactive contamination, is expected to be used as a caustic additive to help turn radioactive waste now stored in underground tanks at Hanford into a stable glass form at the vitrification plant under construction.
Fluor Hanford, which is deactivating the reactor, now is working on removing electrical transformers that have PCB contamination and deactivating equipment as processes no longer are needed, said Wiley Witherspoon, Fluor Hanford FFTF program office manager.
Gregor Gable
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