Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing of (U,Pu)02Fuel

A method for reprocessing uranium and plutonium mixed-oxide fuel, including uranium dioxide fuel, is presented. The method is based on the oxidation process of the fuel and the dissolution of pulverized fuels (U3O8 and PuO2) in nitric acid. To dissolve Pu02, a uranous nitrate solution prepared from uranyl nitrate by electrolytic reduction is utilized. This reprocessing method has an economic advantage over the conventional Purex process because it does not use an expensive solvent extraction process to separate uranium, plutonium, and fission products. The cost of the process is estimated to be 80% that of the Purex process, and the cost of refabrication does not change greatly because remote operation is not needed. This process also has an advantage over the Purex process from the viewpoint of the diversion resistance of nuclear material because pure plutonium cannot be recovered in the process.