Short for Plutonium and Uranium Recovery by EXtraction.
Term for the process which is used in
Nuclear Fuel
reprocessing plants. Invented in
Hanford.
Spent
fuel is dissolved in
nitric acid and then run through a complicated
chemical process to separate the
plutonium and
uranium from the fission products (
nuclear waste).
The Process creates a lot of
waste and is generally
messy.
Today used in reprocessing plants as in
Sellafield,
La Hague and
Monju.