NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.
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Copyright 1997 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
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Committee on Electrometallurgical Techniques for DOE Spent Fuel Treatment
GREGORY R. CHOPPIN,
Florida State University,
Chair
JOHN F. AHEARNE,
Duke University and Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
MICHAEL J. APTED,
QuantiSci, Inc.
PATRICIA A. BAISDEN,
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
SOL BURSTEIN,
Wisconsin Electric Power Co. (retired)
EDITH M. FLANIGEN,
UOP (retired)
L. EUGENE MCNEESE,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ROBERT A. OSTERYOUNG,
North Carolina State University
JOHN D. SHERMAN,
UOP
JOEL D. WILLIAMS,
Los Alamos National Laboratory
RAYMOND G. WYMER,
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (retired)
Staff
TAMAE MAEDA WONG, Study Director
MARIA P. JONES, Senior Project Assistant
Board on Chemical Sciences and Technology
LARRY E. OVERMAN,
University of California, Irvine,
Co-Chair
JOHN J. WISE,
Mobil Research and Development Corporation,
Co-Chair
HANS C. ANDERSEN,
Stanford University
JOHN L. ANDERSON,
Carnegie Mellon University
DAVID C. BONNER,
Westlake Group
PHILIP H. BRODSKY,
Monsanto Company
GREGORY R. CHOPPIN,
Florida State University
BARBARA GARRISON,
Pennsylvania State University
LOUIS C. GLASGOW,
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company
JOSEPH G. GORDONII,
IBM Almaden Research Center
ROBERT H. GRUBBS,
California Institute of Technology
KEITH E. GUBBINS,
Cornell University
VICTORIA F. HAYNES,
B.F. Goodrich Company
JIRI JONAS,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
GARY E. MCGRAW,
Eastman Chemical Company
GREGORY PETSKO,
Brandeis University
WAYNE H. PITCHER,
JR., Genencor Corporation
PETER J. STANG,
University of Utah
JOAN S. VALENTINE,
University of California at Los Angeles
WILLIAM J. WARD III,
General Electric Company
JOHN T. YATES,
University of Pittsburgh
Staff
DOUGLAS J. RABER, Director
TAMAE MAEDA WONG, Senior Program Officer
TRACY D. WILSON, Senior Program Officer
MARIA P. JONES, Senior Project Assistant
SYBIL A. PAIGE, Administrative Associate
Commission on Physical Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications
ROBERT J. HERMANN,
United Technologies Corporation,
Co-Chair
W. CARL LINEBERGER,
University of Colorado,
Co-Chair
PETER M. BANKS,
Environmental Research Institute of Michigan
LAWRENCE D. BROWN,
University of Pennsylvania
RONALD G. DOUGLAS,
Texas A&M University
JOHN E. ESTES,
University of California at Santa Barbara
L. LOUIS HEGEDUS,
Elf Atochem North America, Inc.
JOHN E. HOPCROFT,
Cornell University
RHONDA J. HUGHES,
Bryn Mawr College
SHIRLEY A. JACKSON,
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
KENNETH H. KELLER,
University of Minnesota
KENNETH I. KELLERMANN,
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
MARGARET G. KIVELSON,
University of California at Los Angeles
DANIEL KLEPPNER,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
JOHN KREICK,
Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company
MARSHA I. LESTER,
University of Pennsylvania
THOMAS A. PRINCE,
California Institute of Technology
NICHOLAS P. SAMIOS,
Brookhaven National Laboratory
L.E. SCRIVEN,
University of Minnesota
SHMUEL WINOGRAD,
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
CHARLES A. ZRAKET,
MITRE Corporation (retired)
NORMAN METZGER, Executive Director
Preface
The National Research Council (NRC) was asked by the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide an ongoing evaluation of Argonne National Laboratory's (ANL's) research and development (R&D) activity on electrometallurgical techniques for treatment of DOE spent fuel, including the specific application of the technology to Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) spent fuel. The committee charged with this task has continued to review the program and has prepared this report based on the progress of the program through spring of 1997.
The committee held two meetings in 1997 (the appendix gives the agendas) to review the R&D program at Argonne National Laboratory-East (ANL-E) and evaluate the progress of the EBR-II demonstration at Argonne National Laboratory-West (ANL-W). The first meeting was held on April 7-8, 1997, at the National Research Council in Washington, D.C. Briefings by ANL, DOE, and other interested groups were presented. Subsequently, the committee formulated technical questions on the program in areas that required further clarification by ANL and DOE.
The committee's second meeting, on May 15-16, 1997, was held in Argonne, Illinois, in conjunction with a site visit. The first day consisted of presentations by ANL-E and ANL-W researchers and a laboratory tour to examine the operations. On the second day, the committee discussed the technical details and deliberated the issues that have formed the basis of the recommendations in this report.
The committee meetings and site visit to ANL-E were particularly productive. The committee found the level of detailed technical discussions to be very useful and the information provided by ANL researchers to be important for its evaluation of the program.
