Design of Spent Nuclear Fuel Co-Extraction and Cesium Separation Facility
Abby Kuhn, Olivia Hunsberger, Xochil Arteaga
Spent nuclear fuel has accumulated in thousands of tons across the U.S. and will continue to grow with the use of nuclear power. Reprocessing of spent fuel works to separate elements for applications in new fuel, medicine, and industry. The impact of a potential reprocessing facility would be to decrease the overall volume of high-level radioactive waste and produce more energy from fissionable isotopes. The vitrified waste produced from this reprocessing facility would have a reduced radiotoxicity and decreased overall volume, allowing for more efficient storage.
This presentation will focus on the applications of co-extraction of uranium and plutonium (COEX), and the extraction of cesium (CsEX) from spent nuclear fuel in an industrial-scale reprocessing plant, detailing plant safety, efficiency, and economic feasibility. A literature review was conducted on applicable laboratory-scale research and implemented reactors, and Professor Michael Kaminski and Professor Katy Huff were consulted as necessary.
Research was conducted on necessary safety procedures, and the findings were applied to the plant design. Hot cells, steel confinement boxes, air monitoring, and extensive worker training will all reduce risk at the plant. Additionally, NRC licensing will be necessary to construct the plant, and will require that all possible safety measures are taken in the construction and operation of the plant.
The COEX and CsEX processes address non-proliferation concerns by eliminating plutonium separation. The facility would have a throughput of 2,000 metric tons per year, equivalent to the amount of high-level waste produced by U.S. nuclear reactors each year. This facility would therefore create a closed nuclear fuel cycle for the U.S.. The necessary technology for this process was determined to include dissolution tanks and centrifugal contactors, as displayed through a full-process flow sheet.
To assess economic feasibility, a comprehensive economic analysis estimated the capital costs of the proposed plant between $3.16 and $5.3 billion and the annual operational costs as $365 million. Potential revenue streams from reprocessed fuel and isotope sales were difficult to estimate, but the market for both MOX fuel and medical isotopes is growing.
This report presents a preliminary design for a U.S. reprocessing plant, emphasizing the technology used, safety protocols, and economic outlook. Considerations of site selection, legal framework, and facility aesthetics are also discussed. While this design provides a foundational assessment, additional research and analysis will be essential for future implementation.
Offshore Nuclear Power Plant Design
Elijah Capps, Nicholas Kut, Otto Learsy-Cahill
Among the largest barriers to new nuclear builds are varying construction methods and materials depending on location and the evaluations required for each unique site. Offshoring nuclear energy provides a path to standardizing construction and reducing cost of new nuclear reactors by avoiding costly land-based siting considerations and utilizing pre-existing shipyards and current reactor designs to combine the extensively studied AP1000 with the proven stability of floating spar platforms. Floating nuclear plants far at sea inherently reduces the risk from earthquakes, tsunamis, land-based attacks, and several other threats while promising to maintain similar capabilities to land-based plants. Our project looked at determining the general design and layout of such a platform off the coast of Hawai’i to determine its feasibility in providing cheaper power and displacing fossil fuel use in a state that would face several challenges in building a land-based plant. Our investigation involved developing a 3D model of a classic spar platform based off the Aasta Hansteen in Roblox Studio, which facilitated the analysis of thermodynamic performance, hydrostatic and hydrodynamic stability (through simulation in OpenFOAM), safety and environmental impacts, and economic factors, guided by the decades of experience already inherent in the design of the AP1000 and use of floating spar platforms. Our findings determined that all the major plant components of a gigawatt reactor can fit and operate within the hull of the spar platform without major sacrifices to plant efficiency or platform stability, few safety impacts relative to land-based plants, and an initial estimated cost between 1 and 1.5 billion USD.