Los Alamos, N.M. : Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1984. Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
A high-temperature process utilizing molten salt extraction from molten metal alloys has been developed for purification of spent power reactor fuels. Experiments with laboratory-scale processing operations show that purification and throughput parameters comparable to the Barnwell Purex process can be achieved by pyrochemical processing in equipment one-tenth the size, with all wastes being discharged as stable metal alloys at greatly reduced volume and disposal cost. This basic technology can be developed for large-scale processing of spent reactor fuels. 13 references, 4 figures.