The development of the nuclear fuel reprocessing technology up to its current status

Unless the use of nuclear energy is abandoned altogehter, reprocessing of nuclear fuel is necessary for economic reasons, for reasons of environment protection and in order to prevent misuse of fissionable materials in the future. In over 30 years of development and operation, the Purex process is the only process among various possible chemical processes which is used at present on an industrial scale. The continuing research and development work is aimed at the further optimization of this process, mainly in the direction of reducing the production of wastes, reducing the release of radioactivity into the environment and increasing long-term continuity of operation. Considering the equipment in conjunction with the methods, the techniques accepted as being the best at present are mechanical shearing of complete fuel rod bundles, extraction by means of pulsed columns and a combination of remote and of direct maintenance in conjunction with parallel standby process units and sufficient buffering capacities between individual process areas.