Oklo demonstrates fuel recycling process

Engineers in Argonne’s Chemical and Fuel Cycle Technologies division (Image: Argonne National Laboratory)
California-based liquid metal fast reactor developer Oklo Inc, in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory, has successfully completed the first end-to-end demonstration of the key stages of its advanced fuel recycling process.

Oklo said the completion of the demonstration "marks a significant step forward in Oklo's efforts to scale up its fuel recycling capabilities and deploy a commercial-scale recycling facility to increase advanced reactor fuel supplies, and enhance fuel cost effectiveness".

Supported by a USD5 million cost-share award from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) under the Optimizing Nuclear Waste and Advanced Reactor Disposal Systems (ONWARDS) Program, this project aims to facilitate the deployment of a commercial-scale advanced fuel recycling facility.

Oklo's fuel recycling technology is engineered to extract more than 90% of the remaining potential energy from used fuel, which is expected to be utilised in Oklo powerhouses to generate clean energy. It incorporates unique proliferation-resistant features, including maintaining the consolidation of transuranic materials.

The company said the introduction of commercial fuel recycling operations is expected to save up to 80% on its fuel costs, driving long-term value through enhanced fuel efficiency, alternative fuel source creation, and reduction in high-level waste requiring permanent disposal.

"We recognise the inherent opportunity to enhance our mission through fuel recycling, converting used fuel into clean energy," said Oklo co-founder and CEO Jacob DeWitte. "Oklo's use of fast fission technology positions us well to realise these fuel recycling benefits. The success of this project brings us closer to bringing a commercial-scale domestic fuel recycling facility online, crucial for strengthening our business model and advancing economic viability."

ARPA-E Director Evelyn Wang added: "We know that recycling is an important path to reduce high-level waste, and advance nuclear energy with safe and sustainable domestic fuel stocks. Through ARPA-E's ONWARDS Program, Oklo is working to achieve these goals. This milestone marks an important step forward in the team's progress as they work towards economically viable nuclear fuel recycling."

In January 2023, Oklo submitted a Licensing Project Plan to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), outlining its plans for pre-application engagement activities that support the future licensing of a commercial-scale nuclear fuel recycling facility.

Oklo, founded in 2013, plans to commercialise its liquid metal fast reactor technology with the Aurora 'powerhouse', a fast neutron reactor that uses heat pipes to transport heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system to generate electricity. The powerhouse uses metallic high-assay low-enriched uranium, or HALEU, fuel to produce about 15 MWe as well as producing usable heat.Researched and written by World Nuclear NewsOklo demonstrates fuel recycling process : Waste & Recycling - World Nuclear News
Read More........→ Categories: ,,
→

Extract energy from used nuclear fuel, says environmental group : Waste & Recycling - World Nuclear News

Report author Mark Lynas and RePlanet's Campaigns Coordinator Joel Scott-Halkes hug a canister of nuclear used fuel at the UK's Sizewell nuclear power plant (Image: RePlanet)

If existing inventories of used nuclear fuel were recycled and repurposed as fuel for advanced fast reactors, it could generate zero-carbon electricity for Europe for up to 1000 years, according to international environmental campaign group RePlanet.

In its new report - What a waste: How fast-fission power can provide clean energy from nuclear waste - RePlanet says Europe's nuclear power reactors "have a long history of safe use, and have provided prodigious quantities of clean electricity for decades". However, it notes that they use less than 1% of the actual energy potential in the natural uranium used to make their fuel and irradiated fuel assemblies removed from reactors are considered 'nuclear waste'.

"While this nuclear 'waste' is not a serious environmental or health threat - it occupies trivial volumes compared to waste produced by other industries, and does not harm anyone if properly shielded and safeguarded - it does provide a political challenge, and is among the most oft-cited reasons for continued opposition to carbon-free nuclear power," the report says.

RePlanet says using this used fuel in a new generation of fast-neutron reactors would "eliminate it as a 'waste' concern via a carbon-free waste-to-energy process". It notes that most of the remaining leftover fission products would return to a level of radioactivity comparable to the original uranium ore within 200-300 years. "This means that current deep geological disposal strategies can be simplified and scaled back," it suggests.

The report found that using a calculation based mainly on current inventories of uranium, "there is sufficient energy in nuclear 'waste' to run Europe at current electrical power consumption" for between 600 and 1000 years.

It adds: "If unconventional uranium and thorium resources are considered in the global picture, nuclear fuel is essentially limitless: sufficient to supply a growing human civilisation with carbon-free energy for tens of thousands of years, and likely far longer".

The report notes that while the economics of fast reactors are currently unproven, if resources currently intended for deep geological disposal of used fuel were diverted instead into a fast reactor programme that would enable the re-use of that fuel, "this would turn a burden into a useful part of a legitimate circular economic activity".

Launching the report, RePlanet campaigners call on green parties of Europe to end their "dangerous and unscientific" opposition to nuclear energy. This, it says, is particularly important given the recent release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Synthesis Report, which shows the world is rapidly running out of time to cut carbon emissions sufficiently to meet the Paris goal of 1.5°C. "RePlanet campaigners state that opposition to nuclear is tantamount to climate delayerism from fossil fuel corporations because it will increase carbon emissions".

"Current political narratives treat spent nuclear fuel like it is a waste product that needs to be buried underground, leaving a toxic legacy for future generations," said Mark Lynas, climate author and RePlanet co-founder. "Anti-nuclear campaigners never tire of repeating this mantra in their campaign to shut down nuclear plants irrespective of our climate emergency. However, we show in this RePlanet report that nuclear waste simply needs to be recycled efficiently in order to generate centuries of clean power for Europe and the UK. This material is not waste, it is fuel for the future."

"The IPCC has again made it extremely clear that we just have to get off fossil fuels, and that opposing clean energy technologies like nuclear puts the world on the path to irreversible climate breakdown," said RePlanet Secretary General Karolina Lisslö Gylfe.

RePlanet describes itself as "a network of grassroots charitable organisations driven by science-based solutions to climate change, biodiversity collapse and the need to eliminate poverty".

Read More........→ Categories: ,,,
→
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)