Pyroprocessing

Pyroprocessing (from Greek Πυρος = fire) is a process in which materials are subjected to high temperatures (typically over 800 °C) in order to bring about a chemical or physical change. Pyroprocessing includes such terms as ore-roasting, calcination and sintering. Equipment for pyroprocessing includes kilns, electric arc furnaces and reverberatory furnaces.

Cement manufacturing is a very common example of pyroprocessing. The raw material mix (raw meal) is fed to a kiln where pyroprocessing takes place. As with most industries, pyroprocessing is the most energy-intensive part of the industrial process.

Argonne National Laboratory pioneered the development of pyrochemical processing, or pyroprocessing, a high-temperature method of recycling reactor waste into fuel, demonstrating it paired with the EBR-II and then proposed commercializing it in the Integral Fast Reactor. The latter was cancelled by the Clinton Administration in 1994.^[1] In 2016, Argonne National Laboratory researchers are developing and refining several pyroprocessing technologies for both light water and fast reactors, with most based on electrorefining rather than conventional wet-chemical/PUREX, to improve the technologies’ commercial viability by increasing their process efficiency and scalability.^[2]

Animations of the processing technology are also available.^[3][4]

Pyroprocessing of nuclear fuel rods, as an alternative to nuclear reprocessing, only attempts to combine separated plutonium with other, such as neptunium, americium, or curium. Theoretically, you could still reuse mixed, pyroprocessed plutonium to generate nuclear power, but it wouldn’t be pure enough for other uses.^[5]

En Corea del Sur, debido al histórico Acuerdo de la Sección 123 entre la República de Corea y los Estados Unidos, ^{[ 6 ]} no se permitía ni el enriquecimiento ni el reprocesamiento relacionado con PUREX, por lo que los investigadores veían cada vez más el ciclo de piroprocesamiento "resistente a la proliferación" como la solución para el creciente inventario de combustible gastado del país, formando en 2017 una colaboración con los Estados Unidos y Japón para avanzar en la economía del proceso. ^{[ 7 ] [ 8 ]} En 2019, los defensores de los ciclos de combustible de reactores de sales fundidas (MSR) argumentaban frecuentemente combinar el MSR no comercializado con el ciclo de combustible de piroprocesamiento, ya que el combustible del MSR ya está en forma de sal fundida, eliminando dos pasos de conversión del proceso, el de combustible metálico y viceversa, que tanto el IFR propuesto comercialmente habría requerido como su antecedente demostrado físicamente, cuando el piroprocesamiento se implementó en el EBR-II . ^{[ 9 ]}