Lab-scale demonstration of the URES+1a process using spent fuel

Through the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI) and the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the Department of Energy's Office of Nuclear Energy is developing advanced technologies for treating spent nuclear fuel to greatly expand repository capacity, improve proliferation resistance, and recover valuable energy that would otherwise be discarded; thus, a stable energy supply for the future is assured. An important element of this initiative is the separation of key radionuclides followed by either superior waste-disposal forms and/or transmutation of long-lived isotopes. To that end, advanced fuel reprocessing systems that separate key radionuclides from spent fuel are being developed. One of these systems is the UREX+1a process. UREX+1a consists of a sequence of four solvent-extraction processes and one ion exchange operation that achieve the following objectives: (1) recovery of U and Tc (UREX followed by ion exchange), (2) recovery of Cs and Sr (CCD-PEG), and (3) group recovery of all transuranic elements, predominantly Pu, Np, Am and Cm (TRUEX followed by TALSPEAK). This paper discusses the results of the demonstration of the entire UREX+1a process using spent nuclear fuel, as well as future development needs and plans. (authors)