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How does the PUREX process recover uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel?
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uranium processing
How uranium is enriched to make a nuclear weapon.
The PUREX (plutonium-uranium extraction) process is the standard method for recovering uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. The process involves several key stages:
- Dissolution: The fuel cladding is removed, and the remaining fuel is dissolved in nitric acid.12
- Extraction: The solution is contacted with an organic solvent containing tributyl phosphate (TBP). TBP acts as a complexing agent, selectively pulling uranium and plutonium into the organic phase while leaving fission products in the aqueous acid solution.12
- Separation and Purification: The organic phase is contacted with aqueous reductants to separate the plutonium from the uranium. The uranium is then stripped from the TBP into a dilute nitric acid solution. Additional extraction-strip cycles are performed to further purify the products from each other and any remaining traces of fission products.12
The process ultimately yields three streams: purified uranium, purified plutonium, and a waste stream containing fission products. The recovered uranium and plutonium are then converted into oxides or other forms for further use or storage.12