Scientists will use spectrographic sensors to accelerate the reprocessing of nuclear fuel

In the United States, spent nuclear fuel is stored underground. But, contrary to popular belief,

these storage facilities are not intended toto get rid of this fuel forever, and to store it until it is needed again. This is because the spent fuel still contains a lot of uranium and plutonium, as well as huge amounts of extremely valuable radioactive isotopes that are in high demand in medical and engineering circles.

But there is also a real problem here:spent fuel consists of a complex mixture of elements, almost half of the periodic table. It is very difficult to separate them. Although nuclear fuel reprocessing is an important industry, it remains quite conservative and expensive. In addition, it increases the risks of producing pure plutonium, which in turn raises proliferation problems.

One of the main arguments in favor of nuclearpower engineering - a tiny amount of fuel needed to operate a reactor. A single nuclear fuel pellet weighing only 10 grams gives off energy equivalent to a ton of coal, but surprisingly, when that pellet is “depleted,” it still contains 95% of the fissile material.

To improve the recirculation process, PNNL uses Raman spectroscopy to monitor spent fuel in real time as it flows in solution past a sensor.

Raman systemsare methods of chemical analysis thatuse the interaction of light with chemical bonds in a molecule to obtain information about its chemical structure, phase and polymorphism, crystal structure and molecular interactions.

Using this data, you can controlspent fuel in commercial quantities, as it is converted into a liquid form and then sent to a centrifuge, which separates the various elements by mass. Real-time monitoring allows for more accurate control of the ratio between uranium and plutonium, as well as the removal of unwanted elements and isotopes to produce new reprocessed fuel that can be burned in advanced reactors.

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