Process development report: 0. 20-m primary burner system [report]

W.S. Rickman
1978 unpublished
HTGR reprocessing consists of crushing the spent fuel elements to a size suitable for burning in a fluldized bed to remove excess graphite, separating the fissile and fertile particles, crushing and burning the SiC-coated fuel particles to remove the remainder of the carbon, dissolution and separation of the particles from insoluble materials, and solvent extraction separation of the dissolved uranium and thorium. Burning the crushed fuel elements is accomplished in a primary burner. This is a
more » ... atch-continuous, fluidized-bed process utilizing above-bed gravity fines recycle. In gas-solid separation, a combination of a cyclone and porous metal filters is used. This report documents operational tests performed on a 0.20-m primary burner using crushed fuel representative of both Fort St. Vrain and large high-temperature gas-cooled reactor cores. The burner was reconstructed to a gravity fines recycle mode prior to beginning these tests. Results of two separate and successful 48-hour burner runs and several short-term runs have indicated the operabillty of this concept. Recommendations are made for future work. ill CONTENTS ABSTRACT iii OFF-GAS
doi:10.2172/6567646 fatcat:avq55ubegvh7hcmzyu2tk6opou