Thermodynamics analysis of the current defluoration process of UF6 and its application for efficient recycling of fluorine in the French nuclear fuel cycle

J.-M. Borgard (1) , F. Herbelet (1) , B. Gwinner (1) , J.-L. Fleche (1)

1 CEA-DES (ex-DEN) - CEA-Direction des Energies (ex-Direction de l'Energie Nucléaire)

In the nuclear fuel cycle, contrary to uranium, fluorine is not recycled as it cannot be efficiently separated from the concomitant produced water. In this paper, modification of the current French deconversion industrial process to recycle fluorhydric acid (HF) in an anhydrous form is examined. An alternative solution using a flash drum to recycle overazeotropic mixture of HF/H$_2$O into the hydrolysis reactor is proposed and compared to previous propositions in terms of energetic cost and corrosion issue.

Keywords: fluorhydric acid; corrosion; nuclear fuel cycle

Domains: Physics [physics]; Nuclear Experiment [nucl-ex]; Physics [physics]; Nuclear Theory [nucl-th]

J.-M. Borgard, F. Herbelet, B. Gwinner, J.-L. Fleche. Thermodynamics analysis of the current defluoration process of UF6 and its application for efficient recycling of fluorine in the French nuclear fuel cycle. GLOBAL 2015 - International Conference on Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Related Nuclear Systems, Sep 2015, Paris, France. ⟨cea-02506815⟩