Pyroprocessing: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|High temperature industrial processes}}

{{More citations needed|date=March 2007}}

'''Pyroprocessing''' (from [[Ancient Greek|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 [[roasting (metallurgy)|ore-roasting]], [[calcination]] and [[sintering]]. Equipment for pyroprocessing includes [[kiln]]s, [[electric arc furnace]]s and [[reverberatory furnace]]s.

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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.

<ref></ref>==Recycling used nuclear fuel through pyroprocessing==

{{Main|Nuclear reprocessing#Pyroprocessing}}

[[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.<ref name="pyroprocessanl">

{{cite web

|date=6 June 2016

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|publisher=[[Argonne National Laboratory]]

|accessdate=6 June 2016

}}</ref> TodayIn 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.<ref>{{cite web

|year=2012

|title=Pyroprocessing Technologies: Recycling used nuclear fuel for a sustainable energy future

|url=http://www.ne.anl.gov/pdfs/12_Pyroprocessing_bro_5_12_v14[6].pdf

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304200018/http://www.ne.anl.gov/pdfs/12_Pyroprocessing_bro_5_12_v14%5B6%5D.pdf

|url-status=dead

|archive-date=4 March 2016

|pages=7

|publisher=[[Argonne National Laboratory]]

|accessdate=6 June 2016

}}</ref>

Animations of the processing technology are also available.<ref>[https://www.ne.anl.gov/mm/legacy/ Argonne’s Nuclear Science and Technology Legacy, Multimedia Resources, pg 2 ''The New Explorers: Atoms for Peace (History of the Integral Fast Reactor) – 4 parts'']</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBThTwFhRlA |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/cBThTwFhRlA |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|title=Historical video about the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) concept. Uploaded by – Nuclear Engineering at Argonne|website=[[YouTube]]|date=3 March 2014 }}{{cbignore}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pyroprocessing: A Hot-Button Issue |url=https://www.nrdc.org/onearth/pyroprocessing-hot-button-issue |access-date=2022-10-28 |website=NRDC |date=18 February 2015 |language=en}}</ref>

In S.South Korea due to the historical [[Section 123 Agreement]] between ROK and the U.S,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NP-South-Korea-wins-revisions-to-nuclear-treaty-with-USA-2241501.html|title = South Korea wins revisions to nuclear treaty with USA - World Nuclear News}}</ref> neither enrichment nor PUREX related reprocessing were permitted, with researchers therefore increasingly viewing the "proliferation resistant" pyroprocessing cycle, as the solution for the nation's growing spent fuel inventory, in 2017 forming a collaboration with the U.S and Japan to advance the economics of the process.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://atomicinsights.com/potential-korea-japan-u-s-collaborate-pyroprocessing-trump/|title = Potential for Korea, Japan, U.S. To Collaborate on Pyroprocessing Under Trump - Atomic Insights|date = 18 February 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2008_04/LymanVonHippel|title=Reprocessing Revisited:The International Dimensions of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership &#124; Arms Control Association}}</ref> In 2019, proponents of [[molten salt reactor]] (MSR) fuel cycles, frequently argue pairing the uncommercialized MSR with the pyroprocessing fuel cycle, as the MSR fuel is already in molten salt form, eliminating two process conversion steps, that of to-and-from metallic fuel, that both the commericallycommercially proposed IFR would have required and its antecedent physically demonstrated, when pyroprocessing was fielded in the [[EBR-II]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Riley |first1=Brian J. |last2=McFarlane |first2=Joanna |last3=DelCul |first3=Guillermo D. |last4=Vienna |first4=John D. |last5=Contescu |first5=Cristian I. |last6=Forsberg |first6=Charles W. |title=Molten salt reactor waste and effluent management strategies: A review |journal=Nuclear Engineering and Design |date=April 2019 |volume=345 |pages=94–109 |doi=10.1016/j.nucengdes.2019.02.002 |osti=1495933 |s2cid=117608596 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2019NuEnD.345...94R }}</ref>

==References==