DEVELOPMENT OF COMPACT MINIATURE ANNULAR CENTRIFUGAL CONTACTOR FOR HOT CELL PLACEMENT

Abstract

The development of a compact 1 cm rotor diameter annular centrifugal contactor suited for experimental testing of nuclear fuel reprocessing processes in a hot cell environment is described. Twelve-stage and 50-stage batteries of the 1 cm contactor are used to implement the extraction hot test processes for the cleanup of nuclear waste liquids in hot cells in Germany and China, respectively. The advances are: (1) a simple way of assembly and disassembly between the rotor and housing of the contactor, making manipulator operation easy; (2) compact multistage housing system; (3) easy inter-stage link; (4) compact miniature size of the contactor, taking up less space in the hot cell; (5) automatic sampling from housing of contactor in the hot cell; and (6) rotor speed control.

Keywords:

• Annular centrifugal contactor
• Hot cell placement
• Nuclear waste treatment
• Solvent extraction

Acknowledgment

Author is indebted to Professor Chongli Song for his encouragement and assistance for this study. Author highly appreciates the comments from the anonymous reviewers.