Recycling Nuclear Reactor Components is Research Goal
When they are loaded into a reactor, nuclear fuel rods are filled with stacks of kidney bean-sized “fuel elements” of enriched uranium dioxide encased in a metallic shell. After time, the spent rods are removed from the nuclear reactor and replaced. About 95 percent of the radioactive material in spent fuel elements can be recovered and recycled to both increase the power potential of the technology and to improve waste management. WSU radiochemist Kenneth Nash is fine-tuning the chemical separation processes used in that recovery process.
To recycle useful components, the fuel elements are removed from the rods, mechanically chopped and placed in a vat of nitric acid, which dissolves the ceramic material that separates the fuel from the shell. The separation of uranium and transuranic elements is based on a process called “solvent extraction” and continues until the recyclable uranium and plutonium are recovered for recycle. In conventional processing, the “fission products” and other transuranic products are solidified for disposal in a geologic repository. It is likely that future generation processing will include strategies for recovery of these transuranic elements to improve the performance of the repository. Nash’s research is particularly focused on developing new strategies for recycle of transuranium actinide elements.
Nash believes that for nuclear power to become acceptable as a top alternative in the nation’s search for a clean energy source, three aspects of nuclear energy production need to be improved. First, the U.S. must recycle uranium and plutonium for consumption in current-generation light water reactors, as do England, Japan, France and Russia at present, and as India and China are planning. Secondly, to improve waste management and geologic repository predictability, we need to develop processes to recover and transmute selected long-lived radioactive byproducts of fission in next generation fast reactors, particularly the actinides americium and neptunium. Finally, we must approach these tasks with efficiency, safety, and security as primary objectives. His research touches on each of these aspects of the problem.
Recycling as much long-lived radioactive material as possible is key. In a typical load of fuel in a light water moderated nuclear reactor, only four to five percent of the fuel is consumed (as electricity is generated) before the fuel must be replaced. Using current technology, some 94 to 95 percent of the material can be recycled, leaving only about four percent to be disposed of as waste. Chemical separation processes and recycling are Nash’s primary areas of research.
Nash has recently received two, three-year, $200,000 University Nuclear Energy Research Initiative (UNERI) grants from the U.S. Department of Energy that will support his research to improve the recovery process. His research is done in collaboration with scientists at the Idaho National Lab (INL) and at Pacific Northwest National Lab (PNNL).
The addition of two outstanding radiochemists, Professor Nash in 2003 and Assistant Professor Paul Benny (who focuses on nuclear medicine – diagnostics, treatment and radiopharmaceuticals) in 2004, along with a rapidly growing cohort of radiochemistry graduate students, has propelled the WSU radiochemistry program into the first tier of the nation’s programs. The new director of the WSU Nuclear Radiation Center, Donald Wall and his spouse, Nathalie Wall, research professor in the chemistry department, are also radiochemists and actively involved in the program. Of U.S. universities, only the University of Missouri, Columbia, matches WSU’s commitment to nuclear and radiochemistry in terms of numbers of faculty and graduate students involved. Next year, there may be as many as 15 graduate students in WSU’s program. Undergraduate students also actively participate in the program.
Nationally, enrollment in graduate radiochemistry programs peaked about 30 years ago and then steadily declined. WSU began regenerating our program in 1996, when Professor Sue Clark joined Roy Filby, who has since retired. With growing needs in nuclear medicine, environmental science, food production, pest eradication, energy production, materials development, analytical detection of low-level radiation, and homeland security, there is a large and increasing national need for trained nuclear chemists. Students, both graduate and undergraduate, go directly to jobs in national security, in industry and with Department of Energy national labs such as Savannah River, where a nuclear reactor for research purposes will likely be built, and PNNL, which is designated lead lab for homeland security research.
Nash earned a chemistry bachelor’s degree at Lewis University in Illinois and master’s and doctoral degrees at Florida State University, Tallahassee in inorganic chemistry. He held a postdoctoral post at Argonne National Lab and then spent more than five years at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver. He also spent a year in industry at Dow Chemical and another 17 years at Argonne, as a top research scientist and research group leader, prior to joining the WSU faculty.
Nash is determined to open the world of radiochemistry to a new generation of scientists. He believes that nuclear and radiochemistry should be an essential component of general chemistry. “That’s when you have to reach students,” he said, ”That’s when you can get them excited about the possibilities of a career in radiochemistry.”
Read More: www.wsunews.wsu.edu/detail.asp?StoryID=5069
WSU radiochemist
Kenneth
Nash
Life is good at WSU.
Secondary content can be almost anything. If you are not using this region delete all the content that is in between the div tags with the id ="additional".
A unique richness of students, faculty, location, activities, and organizations creates a full, lively student life at the University. This section gives you the insider's view on student life and a sampling of the opportunities here.
"Glimpses." Students talk about life at WSU
These brief posts are written by WSU students to give you a personal look through their window on campus life.