Scientists are Working on Nuclear Fuel Recycling Technology

13:44, June 11, 2021

Development can solve the problem of environmental pollution and radiation

Specialists from the UrFU Engineering Center for Digital Engineering Technologies and the Institute of High-Temperature Electrochemistry of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are solving the problem of nuclear fuel recycling. The research is conducted within the framework of the "Breakthrough" project area. Victor Koksharov, Rector of the UrFU, told Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

"Scientists all over the world are striving to approach the problem. However, the fluid-salt fast-neutron reactor is a high-level Russian technology. There is nothing like it in the world. It implies 100% utilization of the nuclear fuel. After the fuel is spent in the reactors, it is turned into a liquid state and then allowed to take three years to cool down. All this time the activity of long-lived radioactive substances remains high. The new reactor type will minimize radioactivity and the time interval between stopping the use and reuse of fuel. In addition, the waste will not need to be transferred back to a dry state," Victor Koksharov emphasized.

In Russia and other countries, energy consumption is steadily increasing, so it is necessary to increase production of fossil fuels and develop alternative energy sources, including nuclear fuel and renewable energy. At the same time requirements to environmental friendliness and efficiency of consumed energy are changing. For nuclear power plants around the world several problems are relevant: thermal pollution, as well as the fact that spent fuel continues to emit radiation while it is storing.

The rector added that the university is engaged in another development in the field of nuclear power - the creation of materials for the reactor. The specialists will develop initial data for a preliminary assessment of the technical and economic performance of technologies for pyrochemical reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel from fast-neutron reactors. On the basis of 3D-models the volume-planning solutions for placement of technological equipment in radiation protection chambers will be developed. The goal of the work is to create basic technologies and experimental equipment for waste processing and management.