A patent has been granted in Canada for advanced nuclear power company Moltex Energy Canada’s spent nuclear fuel recycling process that converts uranium oxide fuel into molten salt reactor fuel.
Invented by Moltex co-founder and chief scientist Ian Scott, the innovative process is known known as “waste to stable salt”, or Watss.
In the process, spent nuclear fuel is converted into several parts. Transuranics – the long-lived, man-made elements – along with some uranium and fission products are extracted into a salt which forms the fuel for Moltex’s under-development stable salt reactor-waste burner (SSR-W) plant, avoiding the need for high-purity separations.