Application example: supervision in irradiated fuel reprocessing

The process

The function of spent fuel reprocessing is to recover the uranium and plutonium present in used nuclear reactor fuel rods, and to condition the other fission products. The PF (PF for fission products) pulsed extraction and washing columns shown in this illustration are designed to separate uranium and plutonium from fission products by selective extraction. The pulsed column is a liquid-liquid extraction unit (figure 10 ). All radioactive materials (uranium, plutonium, fission products) are dissolved in nitric acid (inlet flow rate Q0500), and the function of the extraction column is to selectively transfer uranium and plutonium into an organic phase (inlet flow...