[en] The objective of the project is to develop a process which provides a means to recover fuel from the cladding, and to simplify downstream processes by recovering volatile fission products. This work focuses on the process development in three areas ; the measurement and assessment of the release behavior for the volatile and semi-volatile fission products from the voloxidation process, the assessment of techniques to trap and recover gaseous fission products, and the development of process cycles to optimize fuel cladding separation and fuel particle size. High temperature adsorption method of KAERI was adopted in the co-design of OTS for hot experiment in INL. KAERI supplied 6 sets of filter for hot experiment. Three hot experiment in INL hot cell from the 25th of November for two weeks with attaching 4 KAERI staffs had been carried out. The results were promising. For example, trapping efficiency of Cs was 95% and that of I was 99%, etc

[en] DUPIC fuel fabrication process is a dry processing technology to manufacture CANDU compatible fuel through a direct refabrication process from spent PWR fuel. DUPIC fuel fabrication process consists of the slitting of the spent PWR fuel rods, OREOX processing, homogeneous mixing, pelletizing and sintering. All these processes should be conducted by remote means in a M6 hot cell at IMEF. Since there is a lot of highly radioactive spent fuel(200 kg) to be used in DUPIC fuel fabrication process, safety analysis on DFDF facility is very important to improve the safety of hot cell and to reduce the dose exposure to operator. This report describes the design of IMEF facility, manufacturing equipment and process, offgas treatment system necessary for DUPIC fuel manufacturing process. Also, it provides the flow chart of arising and activity for each nuclide in offgas treatment system and final arising and activity for gaseous waste discharged from offgas treatment equipment into inside of M6 cell during OREOX and sintering processes in DUPIC fuel manufacturing process

[en] Solid wastes including cladding materials and fuel hardware were generated from the nuclear fuel cycle facility after the spent nuclear fuel rods of Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs) were decladded. Zircaloy cladding waste, called hull, resulting from the decladding of PWR spent fuels represent one of the major sources of alpha-bearing solid waste generated during the nuclear fuel cycle. Due to the cladding waste are contaminated with actinides, fission products and activation products, their characteristics are of great importance not only for the safety of final disposal but also for other managements. In this study, a variety of characterizations of PWR cladding hulls, such as α-/β-/γ-activities, radionuclide concentrations, activity distribution and mechanical properties, etc., have been reviewed and compared with earlier investigations. This report also discusses decontamination, conditioning and disposal options of the cladding hull under consideration

[en] Not only Korea but also the nuclear advanced countries like USA are endeavoring to develop an advanced nuclear technology which enables us to handle the problems caused by the management of the spent fuel. As a part of this endeavor, USA is conducting a research under the AFCI program to develop a safe and economic fuel cycle satisfying environmental affinity and non-proliferation policy as well as 3 basic requirements of volume reduction, separation of long-lived and toxic nuclides and reuse of spent fuel as a natural resources. This report is prepared based on the 'Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Comparison Report, FY 2004' published on the May of 2004, by DOE of USA

[en] The object of this study is to design and operate the fly ash filter unit for trapping cesium in the vitrification pilot process of radioactive waste in the low and medium level. It is necessary to reuse fly ash, which is a kind of waste from coal fired power plant, in trapping cesium generated from vitrification process and improving safety and removal efficiency of off gas treatment system. According to the XRD analysis on the trapping cesium compounds by the fly ash filter, the thermally stable pollucite phase was formed when the SO_x or NO_x was used as the carrier gas. The trapping efficiency of volatile cesium by the fly ash filter was decreased with the increase of face velocity, whereas the efficiency was increased with the increase of the reaction temperature. And also, by increasing the reaction time, the efficiency was decreased. The trapping efficiency of volatile cesium by the fly ash filter was higher than 99.5 percent under the air or NO_x/air as a carrier gas, however, the efficiency was decreased to 99.0 percent under the NO_x/N₂ as a carrier gas. By the way, the effect of NO_x in the vitrification pilot process might be negligible due to the supply of the significant amount of oxygen. However, because using the SO_x as the carrier gas the efficiency was slightly decreased to 93.5 percent, the influence of the SO_x on the trapping cesium by the fly ash filter seems to be concerned in that pilot process. The fly ash filter unit was performed in the vitrification pilot process, but the trapping efficiency of cesium by that filter could not measured because analytical instruments can not detect the cesium. However, it is confirmed that the the stainless steel 310 can be used for the material of filter frame and housing and shows the corrosion resistance at high temperature (1000 deg C). (author)

[en] Krypton and xenon as inert gases were generated from OREOX process during the DUPIC manufacturing process. krypton and xenon were very sensitive to temperature. The release of krypton and xenon from spent fuel were increased with the increase of temperature and burn up, and with the decrease of initial porosity. The distribution radioactivity of gaseous waste generated from OREOX process is mainly attributed to krypton regardless of burnup and cooling time. Also, the radioactivity contribution of krypton is from 90 to 95% regardless of burnup and cooling time. Hence it is needed to understand the characteristics, treatment and disposal methods of krypton. This state-of-the-art-report describes characteristics, various treatment technologies, and disposal methods for krypton and xenon. This report also discusses the removal efficiency, safety, recycle and compatibility of zeolite applicable to the off gas treatment system for DUPIC process

[en] This report presents the decontamination chamber of being capable of decontaminating and maintaining DUPIC nuclear fuel fabrication equipment contaminated in use. The decontamination chamber is a closed room in which contaminated equipment can be isolated from a hot-cell, be decontaminated and be reparired. This chamber can prevent contamination from spreading over the hot-cell, and it can also be utilized as a part of the hot-cell after maintenance work. The developed decontamination chamber has mainly five sub-modules - a horizontal module for opening and closing a ceil of the chamber, a vertical module for opening and closing a side of the chamber, a subsidiary door module for enforcing the vertical opening/closing module, a rotary module for rotating contaminated equipment, and a grasping module for holding a decontamination device. Such sub-modules were integrated and installed in the M6 hot-cell of the IMEF at the KAERI. The mechanical design considerations of each modules and the arrangement with hot-cell facility, remote operation and manipulation of the decontamination chamber are also described

[en] DUPIC nuclear fuel development team modified M6 hot-cell in IMEF to construct the dedicated facility called DFDF for the experiment. The team have conducted experiment since January of 2000 with spent PWR fuel. According to the expanding IMEF utilization plan, the preliminary hot-cell located underground of IMEF will be modified for verification test of advanced spent fuel management process. Environmental effects of DFDF have been investigated when DUPIC nuclear fuel are fabricated with a maximum capacity of 50 kg U/yr. The results of analysis of the environmental effects for evaluating the radiological safety of DFDF facility have verified that both national regulation limit and IMEF design criteria are satisfied

[en] This reports on the 'Development of Voloxidation Process for Treatment of LWR Spent Fuel', and it is the second year since it has started from June 2004 as a tripartite cooperation project among KAERI(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute), INL(Idaho National Laboratory) and ORNL(Oak Ridge National Laboratory). This report is described mainly for the Task B2 accomplished during the second project year. The Task B2 in proposal contains two sub-tasks. The first one is design of an off-gas treatment system for a voloxidizer to be used in HFEF of INL. For this, KAERI team developed the design of INL OTS (Off-gas Treatment System) for hot experiment in the HFEF. INL team modified and completed the design of the INL OTS. The second task is manufacturing and test operation of the INL OTS for a voloxidizer in the INL. Manufacturing of the OTS is accomplished by INL team with co-work of KAERI. KAERI provided four sets of trapping filters needed for conducting hot experiment in the INL HFEF

[en] Not only Korea but also the nuclear advanced countries like USA are endeavoring to develop an advanced nuclear technology which enables us to handle the problems caused by the management of the spent fuel. As a part of this endeavor, USA is conducting a research under the AFCI program to develop a safe and economic fuel cycle satisfying environmental affinity and non-proliferation policy as well as 3 basic requirements of volume reduction, separation of long-lived and toxic nuclides and reuse of spent fuel as a natural resources. This report is prepared based on the 'Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative Comparison Report, FY 2005' published on the May of 2005, by DOE of USA