New and Old Separation Processes for Chemically Similar Elements in Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles

Friday, May 9, 2008 - 11:00 p.m. to Saturday, May 10, 2008 - 11:55 p.m.
ChEMS Seminar

Featuring Mikael Nilsson, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Chemistry
Washington State University


Location:  Donald Bren Hall, Room 1500


Abstract:
Conserving natural resources by recycling is a popular concept, and likely to become more important in the coming decades.  As we approach the end of the age of fossil fuels, non-carbon-based supplies of energy will also become an increasingly important commodity. In response, a renaissance for nuclear power production is likely to occur. However, recycling of the useful material in spent nuclear fuel is exercised in only a few countries, e.g. the U.K., France, and Japan. To increase the energy utilization and decrease the radiotoxicity of the waste advanced concepts for fuel reprocessing are being investigated on a global scale.  This is a multi-disciplinary research field spanning from organic synthesis to particle physics, and no single research group can hope to cover all aspects.


Collaboration is crucial to the success of these projects. For a successful advanced nuclear fuel cycle, one or several chemical separations steps are required to fractionate the different elements in spent fuel. One of the most difficult separation stages is the separation of the chemically similar trivalent actinides and lanthanides. Within the European Union, projects such as EUROPART (former) and ACSEPT (current) are investigating this process under the current same SANEX (Selective ActiNide EXtraction). In the U.S., the AFCI (Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative) addresses nuclear fuel recycling in a collective of separation processes called UREX+, where the actinide/lanthanides separation is considering using the proven separation system TALSPEAK (Trivalent Actinide/Lanthanide Separation by Phosphorous reagent Extraction and Aqueous Komplexes). In this presentation, similarities and differences between the European and AFCI systems are discussed, emphasizing the challenges that will be faced before an advanced nuclear fuel cycle can be implemented in industry.


About the Speaker:
Mikael Nilsson, Ph.D., received his Ph.D. in nuclear chemistry at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, in 2005.  Currently, he is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Washing State University, in the research group of Dr. Kenneth Nash.  He is currently working on the chemical treatment of spent nuclear fuel as well as managing and setting up laboratories for macro work.