Transcript IAEA
Using High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors for low grade phosphate rock processing Nils Haneklaus1 , Ewald Schnug2, Harikrishnan Tulsidas3, Frederik Reitsma1 1 Section of Nuclear Power Technology Development, Division of Nuclear Power, IAEA, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria 2 Technical 3 Section University Braunschweig - Faculty 2 Life Sciences, Pockelsstraße 14, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials, Division of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology, IAEA, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency Introduction (1) High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) (2) Phosphate rock – overview and uranium content (3) HTGRs for energy neutral processing of low-grade phosphate rock (4) Conclusions - outlook IAEA High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) Overview Structure: • Thermal reactor • Coolant: Helium • Moderator: Graphite Characteristics: Reactor core (pebble bed) Reactor core (block type) • High efficiency • Process heat • Inherent safety characteristics • Flexible fuel (Uranium/Thorium) Side reflector Helium ≈ 250 ˚C Helium up to 1000 ˚C IAEA High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) Past experience – current development DRAGON (1963-1976) PB-1 (1967-1974) AVR FSR THTR (1967-1988) (1976-1989) (1986-1989) PBMR HTTR HTR-10 (1994-2009) (since 1998) (since 2000) HTR-PM (under construction) HTR-PM (construction side Shandong Province) IAEA Phosphate rock – resource that feeds the world Overview • Finite resource – presently not recycled • > 160 million metric tons/yr mined, 90% used for fertilizer production • No substitute for phosphate rock in fertilizer production • Lower grade deposits need to be developed Energy intensive thermal processes/beneficiation methods will have to be employed IAEA Source: http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5053e/y5053e00.htm#Contents, accessed 2013-07-27 Phosphate rock Uranium content • Phosphate rock contains considerable concentrations of ‘valuable’ impurities… Conventional uranium resources worldwide (14.413,7*10 t) 1 • Uranium (up to 400 ppm*) • Thorium (up to 150 ppm*) • …making it one of the largest unconventional uranium resource worldwide *ppm = parts per million IAEA Estimated recoverable uranium resources from phosphate rock worldwide (5.665,97*10 t) 2 Source: 1IAEA Red Book 2011, 2Ulrich, A.E., Schnug E., Prasser H.-M., Frossard E., Uranium endowments in phosphate rock, Science of the Total Environment 478 (2014) 226-234 High temperature gas-cooled reactors for energy neutral processing of low grade phosphate rock Process Heatfor for Chemicals Phosphate conversion Rock and U/Th recovery conversion (thermal process) (wet process) Phosphate Rock Relatively Large Amounts of Waste Uranium/Thorium (≈ 2-3 t P-gypsum per t fertilizer) High Temperature Gascooled Reactor Reactor Fuel Manufacturing IAEA Phosphate Fertilizer Limitations in Processing Low Grad Phosphate Rock Source: Nils Haneklaus, Ewald Schnug, Harikrishnan Tulsidas, Bismark Tyobeka: Using high temperature gas-cooled reactors for greenhouse gas reduction and energy neutral production of phosphate fertilizers, Annals of Nuclear Energy, 2014 Conclusions - outlook Low grade phosphate rock may* be processed economically using high temperature gas-cooled reactors to power energy intensive thermal processing/beneficiation enabling… … recovery of presently lost uranium/thorium, (REE) resources … strongly reduced uranium/thorium contents in final products *The technological and economical feasibility of this idea will be elaborated within the next four years as part of a coordinated research project at IAEA Phosphate Rock Process Heat for Phosphate conversion and U/Th recovery (thermal process) Phosphate Fertilizer “U/Th fuelled HTGR applications for energy neutral sustainable comprehensive extraction and mineral product developments” High Temperature Gascooled Reactor IAEA Uranium/Thorium Reactor Fuel Manufacturing