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B205
The Magnox Reprocessing Plant is a former nuclear reprocessing facility at Sellafield in northern England, which operated from 1964 to 2022. The plant used PUREX chemistry (based on tributyl phosphate (TBP)) to extract plutonium and uranium from used nuclear fuel originating primarily from Magnox reactors. The plant was originally constructed and operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), but in 1971 control was transferred to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL). Since 2005 the plant has been operated by Sellafield Ltd. Operation The plant was commissioned in 1964 as both a replacement for the UK's First Generation Reprocessing Plant, and to process spent fuel from the national fleet of Magnox reactors. The First generation Plant was then converted into a pre-handling plant for Magnox reprocessing and was recommissioned in 1969. In 1973, after both plants had been shut down for one year for maintenance, a violent reaction called a "blowback" occurred in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnox
Magnox is a type of nuclear power/production reactor that was designed to run on natural uranium with graphite as the moderator and carbon dioxide gas as the heat exchange coolant. It belongs to the wider class of gas-cooled reactors. The name comes from the magnesium-aluminium alloy used to clad the fuel rods inside the reactor. Like most other " Generation I nuclear reactors", the Magnox was designed with the dual purpose of producing electrical power and plutonium-239 for the nascent nuclear weapons programme in Britain. The name refers specifically to the United Kingdom design but is sometimes used generically to refer to any similar reactor. As with other plutonium-producing reactors, conserving neutrons is a key element of the design. In magnox, the neutrons are moderated in large blocks of graphite. The efficiency of graphite as a moderator allows the Magnox to run using natural uranium fuel, in contrast with the more common commercial light-water reactor which re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PUREX
PUREX (plutonium uranium reduction extraction) is a chemical method used to purify fuel for nuclear reactors or nuclear weapons. PUREX is the ''de facto'' standard aqueous nuclear reprocessing method for the recovery of uranium and plutonium from used nuclear fuel (spent nuclear fuel, or irradiated nuclear fuel). It is based on liquid–liquid extraction ion-exchange. PUREX is applied to spent nuclear fuel, which consists primarily of very high atomic-weight (actinoid or "actinide") elements (e.g. uranium, plutonium, americium) along with smaller amounts of material composed of lighter atoms, notably the fission products produced by reactor operation. The actinoid elements in this case consist primarily of the unconsumed remains of the original fuel (typically U-235, U-238, and/or Pu-239). Chemical process The fuel is first dissolved in nitric acid at a concentration around 7 M. Solids are removed by filtration to avoid the formation of emulsions, referred to as thir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's county town is Carlisle, in the north of the county. Other major settlements include Barrow-in-Furness, Kendal, Whitehaven and Workington. The administrative county of Cumbria consists of six districts ( Allerdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Carlisle, Copeland, Eden and South Lakeland) and, in 2019, had a population of 500,012. Cumbria is one of the most sparsely populated counties in England, with 73.4 people per km2 (190/sq mi). On 1 April 2023, the administrative county of Cumbria will be abolished and replaced with two new unitary authorities: Westmorland and Furness (Barrow-in-Furness, Eden, South Lakeland) and Cumberland ( Allerdale, Carlisle, Copeland). Cumbria is the third largest ceremonial county in England by area. It i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Used Nuclear Fuel
Spent nuclear fuel, occasionally called used nuclear fuel, is nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor (usually at a nuclear power plant). It is no longer useful in sustaining a nuclear reaction in an ordinary thermal reactor and depending on its point along the nuclear fuel cycle, it may have considerably different isotopic constituents. The term "fuel" is slightly confusing, as it implies a combustion of some type, which does not occur in a nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, this term is generally accepted. Nature of spent fuel Nanomaterial properties In the oxide fuel, intense temperature gradients exist that cause fission products to migrate. The zirconium tends to move to the centre of the fuel pellet where the temperature is highest, while the lower-boiling fission products move to the edge of the pellet. The pellet is likely to contain many small bubble-like pores that form during use; the fission product xenon migrates to these voids. Some of this xeno ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mixer-settler
Mixer settlers are a class of mineral process equipment used in the solvent extraction process. A mixer settler consists of a first stage that ''mixes'' the phases together followed by a quiescent ''settling'' stage that allows the phases to separate by gravity. Mixer A mixing chamber where a mechanical agitator brings in intimate contact the feed solution and the solvent to carry out the transfer of solute(s). The mechanical agitator is equipped with a motor which drives a mixing and pumping turbine. This turbine draws the two phases from the settlers of the adjacent stages, mixes them, and transfers this emulsion to the associated settler. The mixer may consists of one or multiple stages of mixing tanks. Common laboratory mixers consist of a single mixing stage, whereas industrial scale copper mixers may consist of up to three mixer stages where each stage performs a combined pumping and mixing action. Use of multiple stages allows a longer reaction time and also minimizes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reprocessed Uranium
Reprocessed uranium (RepU) is the uranium recovered from nuclear reprocessing, as done commercially in France, the UK and Japan and by nuclear weapons states' military plutonium production programs. This uranium makes up the bulk of the material separated during reprocessing. Commercial LWR spent nuclear fuel contains on average (excluding cladding) only four percent plutonium, minor actinides and fission products by weight. Despite it often containing more fissile material than natural uranium, reuse of reprocessed uranium has not been common because of low prices in the uranium market of recent decades, and because it contains undesirable isotopes of uranium. Given sufficiently high uranium prices, it is feasible for reprocessed uranium to be re- enriched and reused. A higher enrichment level is required to compensate for the 236U which is lighter than 238U and therefore concentrates in the enriched product. As enrichment concentrates lighter isotopes on the "enriched" side an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Magnesium
Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic table) it occurs naturally only in combination with other elements and it almost always has an oxidation state of +2. It reacts readily with air to form a thin passivation coating of magnesium oxide that inhibits further corrosion of the metal. The free metal burns with a brilliant-white light. The metal is obtained mainly by electrolysis of magnesium salts obtained from brine. It is less dense than aluminium and is used primarily as a component in strong and lightweight alloys that contain aluminium. In the cosmos, magnesium is produced in large, aging stars by the sequential addition of three helium nuclei to a carbon nucleus. When such stars explode as supernovas, much of the magnesium is expelled into the interstellar medium where it ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dounreay
Dounreay (; gd, Dùnrath) is a small settlement and the site of two large nuclear establishments on the north coast of Caithness in the Highland area of Scotland. It is on the A836 road west of Thurso. The nuclear establishments were created in the 1950s. They were the Nuclear Power Development Establishment (NPDE) for the development of civil fast breeder reactors, and the Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment (NRTE), a military submarine reactor testing facility. Both these no longer perform their original research functions and will be completely decommissioned, some of which has been in progress for a while. The two establishments have been a major element in the economy of Thurso and Caithness, but this will decrease with the progress of decommissioning. The NPDE will enter an interim care and surveillance state by 2036, and become a brownfield site by 2336. An announcement in July 2020 that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) will be taking over direct mana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bellona Report
The Bellona Foundation is an international environmental NGO headquartered in Oslo, Norway, with branches in Europe and North America. Founded in 1986 by Frederic Hauge and Rune Haaland as a direct action protest group to curb Norway's oil and gas industry pollution, it grew to be multi-disciplinary and multinational in scope and in present day maintains offices in Oslo, Murmansk, St. Petersburg, Brussels and Washington, D.C. Bellona works with ecologists, specialists in the natural and social sciences, engineers, economists, attorneys, and journalists to accomplish its objectives. Goals In order to solve environmental issues, Bellona collaborates with organizations of environmental activists, scientific professionals, governments, and other NGOs. These include addressing the effects of climate change, eradicating Russia's nuclear legacy from the Cold War, and ensuring the security of oil and gas production and processing in Norway and Europe. Bellona created the so-called ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruthenium
Ruthenium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ru and atomic number 44. It is a rare transition metal belonging to the platinum group of the periodic table. Like the other metals of the platinum group, ruthenium is inert to most other chemicals. Russian-born scientist of Baltic-German ancestry Karl Ernst Claus discovered the element in 1844 at Kazan State University and named ruthenium in honor of Russian Empire, Russia. Ruthenium is usually found as a minor component of platinum ores; the annual production has risen from about 19 tonnes in 2009Summary. Ruthenium platinum.matthey.com, p. 9 (2009) to some 35.5 tonnes in 2017. Most ruthenium produced is used in wear-resistant electrical contacts and thick-film resistors. A minor application for ruthenium is in platinu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Institute For Energy And Environmental Research
The Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) is an anti-nuclear organization which focuses on the environmental safety of nuclear weapons production, ozone layer depletion, and other issues relating to energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a .... IEER publishes a variety of books on energy-related issues, conducts workshops for activists on nuclear issues, and sponsors international symposia and educational outreach projects. IEER was established in 1987 and is based in Takoma Park, Maryland. Arjun Makhijani is President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. See also * Anti-nuclear groups in the United States * Efficient energy use * List of nuclear accidents * Nuclear whistleblowers * Nuclear safety * Renewable energy commerciali ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plutonium
Plutonium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is an actinide metal of silvery-gray appearance that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four oxidation states. It reacts with carbon, halogens, nitrogen, silicon, and hydrogen. When exposed to moist air, it forms oxides and hydrides that can expand the sample up to 70% in volume, which in turn flake off as a powder that is pyrophoric. It is radioactive and can accumulate in bones, which makes the handling of plutonium dangerous. Plutonium was first synthetically produced and isolated in late 1940 and early 1941, by a deuteron bombardment of uranium-238 in the cyclotron at the University of California, Berkeley. First, neptunium-238 ( half-life 2.1 days) was synthesized, which subsequently beta-decayed to form the new element with atomic number 94 and atomic weight 238 (half-life 88 years). Since ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
