Characterization of the insoluble sludge from the dissolution of irradiated fast breeder reactor fuel

Aihara, Haruka   ; Arai, Yoichi  ; Shibata, Atsuhiro  ; Nomura, Kazunori  ; Takeuchi, Masayuki 

Insoluble sludge is generated in reprocessing process. Actual sludge data, which had been obtained from the dissolution experiments of irradiated fuel of fast reactor "Joyo" were reevaluated especially from the view point of the characterization of sludge. The yields of sludge were calculated from the weight and there were less than 1%. Element concentrations of sludge were analyzed after decomposing by alkaline fusion. As the results, molybdenum, technetium, ruthenium, rhodium and palladium accounted for mostly of the sludge. From their chemical compositions and structure analyzed by XRD show good agree that main component of sludge is MoRuRhPdTc regardless of the experimental condition. At the condition of reprocessing fast breeder fuel, it is indicated that molybdenum and zirconium in dissolved solution is low, therefore zirconium molybdate hydrate may not produce abundant amount in the process.