A Process of Spent Nuclear Fuel Treatment with the Interim Storage of TRU by Use of Amidic Extractants.

A new chemical process, ARTIST process, is proposed for the treatment of spent nuclear fuel. The main concept of the ARTIST process is to recover and stock separately all actinides, uranium and a mixture of transuranics, and to dispose fission products. The process composed of two main steps, a uranium exclusive isolation and a total recovery of transuranium elements (TRU); which copes with the nuclear non-proliferation measures, and additional processes. Both actinide products are solidified by calcination and allowed to the interim storage for future utilization. These separations are achieved by use of amidic extractants in accord with the CHON principle. The technical feasibility of the ARTIST process was explained by the experimental results of both the branched-alkyl monoamides in extracting uranium and supressing the extraction of tetravalent actinides due to the steric effect and the diglycolic amide in thorough extraction of all TRU by tridentate coordination. When these TRU are requested to put into reactors, LWR or FBR, for power generation or the Accelerator-Driven System (ADS) for transmutation, lanthanides are to be removed from TRU by utilizing a soft nitrogen donor ligand.