The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 08, 2002
Filed:
Sep. 07, 2000
William E. Miller, Naperville, IL (US);
Zygmunt Tomczuk, Lockport, IL (US);
The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
This is a pyroprocess for processing spent nuclear fuel. The spent nuclear fuel is chopped into pieces and placed in a basket which is lowered in to a liquid salt solution. The salt is rich in ZrF and containing alkali or alkaline earth fluorides, and in particular, the salt chosen was LiF-50 mol % ZrF with a eutectic melting point of 500° C. Prior to lowering the basket, the salt is heated to a temperature of between 550° C. and 700° C. in order to obtain a molten solution. After dissolution the oxides of U, Th, rare earth and other like oxides, the salt bath solution is subject to hydro-fluorination to remove the oxygen and then to a fluorination step to remove U as gaseous UF . In addition, after dissolution, the basket contains PuO and undissolved parts of the fuel rods, and the basket and its contents are processed to remove the Pu.