Improvement of the RuO vapor-liquid transfer model in the chemical behavior analysis code SCHERN for accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of reprocessed high level liquid waste

Yoshida, Kazuo; Hiyama, Mina*; Tamaki, Hitoshi

JAEA-Research 2025-011, 25 Pages, 2025/11

JAEA-Research-2025-011.pdf:2.15MB

An accident of evaporation to dryness by boiling of high-level radioactive liquid waste (HLLW) is postulated as one of the severe accidents caused by the loss of cooling function at a fuel reprocessing plant. In this case, volatile radioactive materials, such as ruthenium (RuO) are released from the tanks with water and nitric-acid mixed vapor into the atmosphere. Accurate quantitative estimation of released Ru is one of the important issues for risk assessment of those facilities. RuO is expected to be absorbed chemically into water dissolving nitrous acid (HNO). This behavior has been experimentally confirmed and plays an important role in the migration of Ru in the facility. A new model has been proposed as a chemical and physical absorption model based on the experimental results of the migration of RuO into nitric acid-water mixtures. In this study, to improve the analytical performance of SCHERN, these new analytical models have been incorporated and attempted to analyze the behavior of RuO in each phase. As a result, it has been observed a tendency that HNO in the liquid phase increases rapidly during the late boiling phase, when RuO release increases rapidly, and confirmed that this HNO concentration change significantly affects the subsequent migration behavior of RuO. These results indicate that it is essential to improve the analytical accuracy of the chemical behavior of HNO in each phase.

Study on electrolytic reduction of pertechnetate in nitric acid solution for electrolytic extraction of rare metals for future reprocessing

Asakura, Toshihide; Kim, S.-Y.; Morita, Yasuji; Ozawa, Masaki*

Journal of Nuclear and Radiochemical Sciences, 6(3), p.267 - 269, 2005/12

https://doi.org/10.14494/jnrs2000.6.3_267

An electrolytic extraction (EE) method, i.e. electro-reductive deposition, of Tc from nitric acid aqueous solution was studied for future reprocessing. After 30 min of constant potential electrolysis by carbon electrode at -0.3 V vs. SSE (Standard Silver Electrode), Tc concentration in 3 M nitric acid decreased to 93 % of the initial value, which corresponds to 7 % of deposition. With co-existence of Pd, the value reached to 15 % of deposition equivalent by electrolysis at 0.0 V vs. SSE for 60 min. An acceleration effect of Pd on Tc deposition (promoter effect) was suggested. The concentration, however, increased to the initial value after further electrolysis and competing re-dissolution of deposited Tc was also suggested. In cyclic voltammetry measurements, it was found that the deposit from Tc-Pd-Ru-Rh solution dissolved easier than that from Pd-Ru-Rh did. In electrolyzed Tc solution, an absorption peak at 482 nm was found. It can be attributed to the complex with nitrite anion, and the complex formation is proposed as one possible mechanism of Tc re-dissolution.

Development of a new neptunium separation process by using photochemical reduction in nuclear fuel reprocessing

Uchiyama, Gunzo; Kihara, Takehiro; Hotoku, Shinobu; Fujine, Sachio; Maeda, Mitsuru

Radiochimica Acta, 81(1), p.29 - 32, 1998/00

https://doi.org/10.1524/ract.1998.81.1.29

no abstracts in English

Distribution equilibrium of nitrous acid in reprocessing solution

Hotoku, Shinobu; Kihara, Takehiro; Uchiyama, Gunzo; Fujine, Sachio; Maeda, Mitsuru

JAERI-M 93-095, 19 Pages, 1993/03

JAERI-M-93-095.pdf:0.66MB

no abstracts in English