Nuclear reprocessing

Nuclear reprocessing chemically separates reusable uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel. It also produces radioactive waste streams that require long-term management.

PUREX: A solvent-extraction process that separates uranium and plutonium from dissolved spent nuclear fuel. This widely used method performs the central separation in conventional reprocessing.
Manhattan Project: The United States-led wartime program that developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II. Industrial plutonium separation was developed to supply the project’s weapons program.
Mixed oxide fuel: Reactor fuel containing oxides of uranium and plutonium, usually fabricated as ceramic pellets. Recovered plutonium can be blended with uranium oxide to make this reactor fuel.
Spent fuel pool: A water-filled basin used to cool and shield recently discharged nuclear fuel. It stores fuel without chemically separating its uranium, plutonium, or waste products.
Spent nuclear fuel: Nuclear fuel removed from a reactor after irradiation, containing unused fuel, fission products, and transuranic elements. It is the irradiated material dissolved and separated during reprocessing.
Hanford Site: A nuclear production complex in Washington State built during World War II to produce plutonium. Its chemical plants demonstrated large-scale separation of plutonium from irradiated uranium.
Fast-neutron reactor: A nuclear reactor whose fission chain reaction is sustained mainly by fast neutrons. Some designs can use recycled plutonium and other transuranic elements as fuel.
Dry cask storage: A method for storing cooled spent nuclear fuel in sealed, shielded containers. It offers interim storage without the chemical separation required by reprocessing.
Solvent extraction: A separation technique that transfers dissolved substances between immiscible liquid phases. Reprocessing uses selective transfer between aqueous and organic liquids to separate actinides.
Bismuth phosphate process: An early chemical method for separating plutonium from irradiated uranium fuel at Hanford. This wartime process preceded solvent extraction in industrial plutonium recovery.

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