Using High Temperature Gascooled Reactors for low grade

Using High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors for low grade phosphate rock processing Nils Haneklaus 1 , Ewald Schnug 2, Harikrishnan Tulsidas 3, Frederik Reitsma 1 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 AVR FSR THTR (1967 -1974) (1967 -1988) (1976 -1989) (1986 -1989) PBMR (1994 -2009) HTTR (since 1998) HTR-10 (since 2000) HTR-PM (construction side Shandong Province) IAEA (under construction)

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/y 5053 e 00. 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: 1 IAEA Red Book 2011, 2 Ulrich, 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 Chemicals Phosphate conversion Rock and U/Th recovery conversion (thermal process) (wet process) Phosphate Rock Phosphate Fertilizer High Temperature Gascooled Reactor IAEA Reactor Fuel Manufacturing Relatively Large Amounts of Waste Uranium/Thorium (≈ 2 -3 t P-gypsum per t 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 “U/Th fuelled HTGR applications for energy neutral sustainable comprehensive extraction and mineral product developments” Process Heat for Phosphate conversion and U/Th recovery (thermal process) High Temperature Gascooled Reactor Uranium/Thorium IAEA Phosphate Fertilizer Reactor Fuel Manufacturing