Novel Method for Recycle of Sintered UO2 Rejected Pellets

Abstract

In the process of production of UO₂ pellets for PHWR fuel, some quantity of sintered pellets gets rejected due to various defects. The earlier processes of recycling these sintered rejects, like oxidising the sintered rejects to U₃O₈ and adding to the regular stream of U₃O₈ or oxidising the sintered rejects to U₃O₈ and dissolving in nitric acid, etc. This process suffers from several drawbacks like poor quality of finished product and other associated problems like air borne activity. The present process, developed and established by the authors, is an excellent method for recycling of the sintered rejects, which is environmental friendly, most economic, simple and consumes less chemicals. The present paper discusses the several stages followed in developing to the present stage and the process in detail.