Agip Nucleare, S.p.a.

Giacomo Caporali

Giovanni Brambilla

Mario Zambianchi

In the recovery of plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel elements especially those coming from fast nuclear reactors, the improvement consisting in that the spent nuclear fuel elements are subjected to the action of a molten nitrate bath (mixed nitrates of alkali metals or alkaline earth metals), whereafter the plutonium thus obtained is further decomposed in a nitrate bath at a higher temperature, then the plutonium is recovered and a further thermal decomposition of the remaining material at a still higher temperature enables the uranium to be recovered. The recovery of plutonium requires the action of the nitric vapors, the recovery of uranium does not. Molten nitrates can likewise be recovered and recycled.

Pyrochemical separation of plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuels, by

Ceramic nuclear fuel is reprocessed through a method wherein the fuel is dispersed in a molten eutectic mixture of at least two alkali metal nitrates and heated to a temperature in the range between 200.degree.C and 300.degree.C. That heated mixture is then subjected to the action of a gaseous stream containing nitric acid vapors, preferably in the presence of a catalyst such as sodium fluoride. Dissolved fuel can then be precipitated out of solution in crystalline form by cooling the solution to a temperature only slightly above the melting point of the bath.

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Pisa, Italy

Giacomo Caporali