In Zelenogorsk, at the Electrochemical Plant (JSC "PO EKhZ", part of Rosatom's Fuel Division), the country's second depleted uranium (uranium "tailings") processing facility has been launched. The capacity of the W2-EKhZ production site is 10 thousand tons of actinides per year, the state corporation's press service reported.
The launch of the facility doubled Russia's depleted uranium deconversion capacity to 20 thousand tons per year.
The defluorination (removal of fluorine compounds) facility for uranium hexafluoride (DUF6, depleted uranium) operates using pyrohydrolysis technology (the process of decomposing inorganic substances at high temperatures under the action of water vapor). Aggressive DUF6 is converted into a safer uranium oxide (a chemically stable compound of uranium with oxygen). In this state, it can be stored for a long time in containers in open areas.
Given the growing global demand and high prices for uranium, as well as our new generation technologies, any "tailings" uranium with any content of the uranium-235 isotope still represents enormous value for the industry.
According to TVEL President Nikipelova, DUF6 can be re-enriched and returned to the nuclear fuel cycle.
Rosatom's press service explained that depleted uranium is used in uranium-plutonium MOX fuel for the BN-800 reactor. It is also part of SNUP fuel for the BREST-OD-300 reactor.