painful extraction from an energy morass, page-5

No assumption PK9, but you do need to put together information from several sources to get the full answer, if you don't understand after what I tell you here then I don't suppose I will ever be able to explain it to you, I don't mean that be derogatory, I just don't know if I can keep going with this.

I wrote this for someone else on another thread in response to a similar question, maybe the penny will drop when he reads the last bit about SPECIAL NUCLEAR FUEL abnd what the NRC said?

If you look at page 4 on the PDF link I supplied :- http://nordic-gen4.org/wordpress/wp-conten...avid-Powell.pdf

It shows a flow diagram, as you say the used fuel from the LEU BWR is sent to the Advanced Recycling Centre where it is reprocessed by electochemical treatment which separates the waste into three sections,

One of them being the fission products which is sent to a waste repository,

The second is what they call the PRISM actinide bundle which goes into the PRISM reactor as fuel.

The third part of the separation is what they either call the "Uranium CANDU bundle" on page 4, or on page 5 they refer to it as just "Recycled Uranium", these two substances are exactly the same i.e. in the Uranium CANDU bundle it can be used in a CANDU reactor as fuel, because a CANDU reactor does not need enriched Uranium to operate it,
this same fuel they call Recycled Uranium also has actinides in it as you say which counteract some of the radioactivity which means it no longer falls between 3% to 5% enriched which is what a LEU BWR requires, it therefore needs to be re-enriched to a higher degree than the 3% to 5% to overcome these impurities, or they may just knock out the actinides and just capture only the U235 portion without the actinides? that part I do not know?

but this is possibly still in development? I also know from other documents I have read and posted here before is that the only enrichment process able to re enrich this Recycled Uranium is the laser enrichment process, because it is a closed process, this means it is safer than other enrichment processes for this purpose, I also suspect that the prototypes that are being developed at Oak Ridge are for this re-enrichment process?

Something else I do know is that flow diagram on page 4 shows that what they call recycled Uranium goes back to what they call loosely call "Fuel Fabrication", I also know that that Recycled Uranium contains actinides as I said, it would be totally usless in a LEU BWR "unless" it is RE-ENRICHED to either knock out these actinides or enriched to a higher degree to counteract them.

The PDF also shows GLE on page 3 as being an integral part of what they call their "Innovation through the Fuel Cycle"

The initial Atomic Safety Licencing Boards decision to grant Global Laser Enrichment LLC (GLE) for a license to possess and use source, byproduct and ***special nuclear material*** and to enrich natural uranium to a maximum of 8% 235U. seems to sum it up, that part was later removed from the Silex website , but it was there for a short time, the need for higher enrichment might be why they were granted a licence for 8% not 5% as one would have expected?

"Source material" is Raw Uranium from a mine, mixed into a UF6 form for processing.

"Byproduct" is the Depleted Uranium from the US Stockpile sitting at sites like Paducah, this is where 900 years worth of Uranium will come from for the LEU BWR's.

I also assume after looking at the flow diagram on page 4 that some of the Uranium will come back from the ARC for re-enrichment using lasers, in the form of "SPECIAL NUCLEAR FUEL" which is also called "RECYCLED URANIUM" which has actinides still in it, this is the third component from the electrochemical process, this will be a continious process where the same Uranium is recycled many times, because these Nuclear power stations only consume 5% of the Uranium each time it is used.

The cycle is I.E initial Uranium from mines is used in LEU BWR used fuel then sent to ARC to be separated into the three components, Waste (sent to repository), Plutonium Bundle (for PRISM reactor) and "Recycled Uranium" then sent for re-enrichment and then used in the LEU BWR or it is sent straight to a CANDU reactor.


Also if you look here it explains all about the need for rules about SPECIAL NUCLEAR FUEL and why they are necessary.
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collecti...7/sr1542v17.pdf



In response to sustained industry interest in reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, the NRC continued to work on developing a technical basis for rulemaking to establish the regulatory framework for licensing a reprocessing facility.


In FY 2009, the agency completed a review to identify and prioritize gaps in the existing regulations.


During FY 2011, the agency continued to define the technical basis needed to support the development of proposed regulations to resolve the identified gaps and establish an effective and efficient regulatory framework.

The NRC continues to conduct rulemakings to secure special nuclear material.


In FY 2009, the agency began an initiative to revise and consolidate the regulations for material control and accounting of special nuclear material.

During FY 2010, staff started developing the draft rule text. This work continued in FY 2011, and the draft text is expected to be released for public comment in FY 2012.