GLOBAL NUCLEAR ENERGY PARTNERSHIP COUPLED END-TO END DEMONSTRATION

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) represents the renaissance of nuclear energy in the United States and encourages expansion of nuclear energy throughout the world. A significant part of the program is to encourage the processing of spent fuel so that it can be recycled through reactors, resulting in transmutation of actinides and reduction of the load on geologic repositories. Advanced proliferation-resistant methods are being developed that will result in recovered products in proliferation-resistant forms and that use improved safeguard measures. As an intermediate step between the initial proof-of-principle in the laboratory and the pilot- and full-scale facilities to be built in the future, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has initiated a program using existing facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to demonstrate the processes involved. This demonstration will comprise every step in the process—from receipt of spent fuel, to fabrication of actinide products, to testing of pellets for qualification in reactors. This “coupled end-to-end” test (CETE) will process the materials in sequential steps using the flowsheets and conversion processes that are being developed for future facilities. Throughout the process, actual product materials and waste forms derived from spent fuel will be available for measurement and evaluation. In conjunction with process development, a number of safeguards-related programs are studying safeguards measures to identify technology gaps and development requirements. The ORNL facility will team with all DOE laboratories to develop the needed technologies, and, to the extent possible, these other laboratories will team with the demonstration facilities to develop needed safeguards methodologies.