Production of 15N for nitride type nuclear fuels

8^th European Chemistry Congress

June 21-23, 2018 | Paris, France

Damian Axente and Cristina Marcu

National Institute for R and D of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies, Romania

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Chem Sci J

Abstract :

Nitride type nuclear fuel is the obvious choice for advanced nuclear reactors and accelerator driven system (ADS) because of the favorable properties: high melting point, excellent thermal conductivity, high fissile density, lower fission gas release and good radiation tolerance.The application of nitride fuels in nuclear reactors and ADS requires use of 15N enriched nitrogen instead of 14N to suppress 14C production due to (n, p) reaction of 14N. For an industrial plant producing 10 t /y 15N, using present technology of isotopic exchange in Nitrox system (�± = 1.055 at 25�°C), the first separation stage of the separation cascade would be fed with 10M HNO3 solution of 60 m3/h flow-rate. If conversion of HNO3 into NO, NO2, at the enriching end of the separation columns, would be done with gaseous SO2, for a production plant of 10 t/y 15N a consumption of 4x105 t/y SO2 and a production of 65 â�� 70% H2SO4 waste solution of 4.5x105 m3/y are estimated. In the present there is no alternative technology for 15N production, the ion exchange NH4 â�� R / NH3(aq) on cation exchange resin being inefficient for large scale production, according to the small flor-rate accepted in the separation columns. The cryogenic distillation of nitric oxide having a good single stage separation factor for 15N (�± = 1.037 at -152�°C) canâ��t be taken into consideration for industrial production of that isotope because nitric oxide, in liquid and solid form, is an unpredictable, highly shock-sensitive explosive.