History and status of spent fuel treatment at the INL Fuel Conditioning Facility

Abstract

Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II) operated from 1964 to 1994 as one of the first sodium-cooled fast reactors to use sodium-bonded metallic driver fuels and blankets. EBR-II was a testbed for fuel development and reactor design principles. Following shutdown, it was decided to use electrometallurgical methods to treat the spent fuel and blanket materials for final disposition. This paper provides a brief history of U.S. liquid metal cooled reactor development with emphasis on EBR-II, and a technical description of the electrometallurgical methods.