New Decladding System in the Reprocessing Process for Fast Reactor Fuel

Yamada, Seiya; Washiya, Tadahiro ; Takeuchi, Masayuki ; Suganuma, Takashi; Aose, Shinichi

As a part of the feasibility study on commercialized fast reactor cycle systems, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) has been developing the fuel decladding technology for the dry reprocessing process (oxide electrowinning process) and aqueous reprocessing process. Particularly, in the oxide electrowinning process, the spent fuel should be reduced to powder for quick dissolution in the molten salt at electrolyzer. Heat treatment method such as a voloxidation might not be applicable in the decladding process, because of the high plutonium content as fast reactor fuel. Therefore, JNC proposes new decladding system with innovative mechanical decradding devices. The decladding system consists of fuel crushing stage, hull separation stage and hull rinsing stage. In this paper, the outline of this new decladding system and its innovative devices will be descried.