Process Development Studies for Zirconium Recovery/Recycle from used Nuclear Fuel Cladding

Process development studies are being done to recover and reuse zirconium from used nuclear fuel (UNF) zirconium alloy cladding. This has been shown to be economically viable and is a major initiative in waste reduction. The studies have included recovery processes based on dry pyrochemical iodination, chlorination, and hydrochlorination. Chlorination, using either or both chlorine and hydrogen chloride, was shown to provide better performance and is more compatible for interfacing with existing industrial chlorination processes used for fuel rod cladding manufacture from natural zirconium. The chlorination recovery process could be used for chemical decladding of intact UNF assemblies or for treatment of empty cladding segment hulls. Future work is planned to optimize recovery process conditions, equipment design, and scale-up operations.