An Advanced aqueous reprocessing process for the next generation's nuclear fuel cycle

Mineo, Hideaki  ; Asakura, Toshihide; Hotoku, Shinobu ; Ban, Yasutoshi  ; Morita, Yasuji  

An advanced aqueous reprocessing process has been proposed for the next generation fuel cycle. Key technologies applied to the process are: removal of I-129, separation of Np and FP(Tc) separation by selective reduction of Np(VI) and high acid scrubbing of Tc within a single cycle process, MA separation by extraction chromatography and Cs/Sr separation. U separation just after dissolution was supposed to be effective to reduce the required capacity of the following extraction step. Among them Np reduction rate in TBP solution was measured, which was found to be lower than that in aqueous solution. Using an improved flow sheet spent fuel test, based on the Np reduction test, was carried out and about 90% of Np was separated before U and Pu partitioning step.