Deployment of advanced nuclear reactors will inevitably introduce new challenges for devising and implementing an efficient, safe, and economical nuclear fuel cycle that meets society’s need for clean energy and expectations for environmental stewardship. The growing urgency for decarbonizing the US and global economies makes such technological challenges all the more compelling. The Office of Materials and Chemical Technologies within US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy stewards the capabilities and knowledge relied upon by government policy makers to make informed decisions regarding nuclear fuel cycle options. Such decisions in turn rely on the development of efficient and economical separation methods that can accept the used nuclear fuel containing actinides and fission products to recycle selected actinides, recover valuable by-products, and deliver waste streams that are suitable for disposal.
To help guide the future direction of fuel cycle separations research, the Office of Materials and Chemical Technologies sponsored the Innovative Separations R&D Needs for Advanced Fuel Cycles workshop, held virtually August 30–September 1, 2021. Based upon 60 contributed white papers, 6 plenary lectures, and 3 days of discussions, the outcome of the workshop and subsequent deliberations was the generation of this report identifying seven future research directions (FRDs) plus three crosscutting areas of research. Each FRD is described in an individual chapter in this report as follows:
FRD 1: Develop Methods to Efficiently Remove and Treat Coating and Cladding Materials
FRD 2: Devise Chemistry that Operates Directly on Irradiated Fuel
FRD 3: Design Robust Materials for Separation of Gas-Phase Species
FRD 4: Apply Physical Phenomena, Fields, and Gradients to Intensify Separations
FRD 5: Exploit Principles of Coordination Chemistry to Simplify Actinide Separations
FRD 6: Develop Technologies for Real-Time Quantification of Chemical Species
FRD 7: Achieve Control of Redox Potential in Molten Salt Systems.
The three crosscutting research areas are identified and incorporated as a subsequent chapter:
Crosscut 1: Accelerate the Rate of Innovation by Leveraging Simulation and Modeling
Crosscut 2: Adapt and Exploit Data Science
Crosscut 3: Understand and Manage Radiation Effects on Materials and Processes.
Separation science and technology (SS&T) is foundational to the nuclear enterprise. Since the dawn of the nuclear era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, SS&T has enabled the advancement of neutron science and technology, leading to commercial nuclear power on a global scale. To gain full advantage of emerging nuclear power reactor technology, the continued development of nuclear SS&T is essential. The physics underlying a sustainable nuclear power future—multirecycle of actinides into a fleet of thermal and fast-spectrum power reactors—is well understood. Advancements in the FRDs supported by crosscutting research identified in this report will underpin the implementation of this vision.