The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor is being developed in South Africa. Important for PBMR implementation is a viable strategy for waste management. Irradiated graphite from fuel and structural components is too voluminous for practical treatment with traditional higher level waste methods and too radioactive to recycle. To clean the graphite of radionuclides, a two-step process is being pursued: (1) non-carbon radionuclides (activation products, fission products and actinides) are removed on an elemental basis by a chemical or microbial process. (2) 14C requires separation at an isotopic level, which would be impractical with established methods (gaseous diffusion or centrifuge). PBMR is investigating a method of isotope separation using biofractionation. Preliminary experiments indicate that microorganisms do separate radioactive 14C from stable 12C. An aqueous slurry of 14C-spiked, powdered graphite was “fed” to the microbes for 15–18 hours. The microbes initially contained only background levels of 14C, i.e. orders of magnitude less than the slurry. In post-experiment analyses, a sample of the microbes was found to contain approximately twice the amount of 14C present in the bulk slurry material. Experiments are underway to further quantify and verify these results, which indicate distinct microbial processing mechanisms for 14C and 12C. The most current results will be presented.
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Fourth International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology
September 28–October 1, 2008
Washington, DC, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- ASME
ISBN:
978-0-7918-4855-5
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
Microbial Treatment of Irradiated Graphite for Separation of Radioisotope 14C From Bulk Graphite 12C
Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar,
Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
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Francis van Ravenswaay,
Francis van Ravenswaay
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
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Leszek Kuczynski,
Leszek Kuczynski
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
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Johan M. F. Slabber
Johan M. F. Slabber
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
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Mary Lou Dunzik-Gougar
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
Francis van Ravenswaay
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
Leszek Kuczynski
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
Johan M. F. Slabber
Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (Pty.) Ltd., Centurion, Gauteng, South Africa
Paper No:
HTR2008-58119, pp. 631-638; 8 pages
Published Online:
July 1, 2009
Citation
Dunzik-Gougar, ML, van Ravenswaay, F, Kuczynski, L, & Slabber, JMF. "Microbial Treatment of Irradiated Graphite for Separation of Radioisotope 14C From Bulk Graphite 12C." Proceedings of the Fourth International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology. Fourth International Topical Meeting on High Temperature Reactor Technology, Volume 2. Washington, DC, USA. September 28–October 1, 2008. pp. 631-638. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/HTR2008-58119
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