Development of Centrifugal Contactor with High Reliability

In Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA), an innovative centrifugal contactor system has been developed for a future reprocessing plant. It was confirmed that it had a higher extraction capacity through the uranium test already. But it was necessary that it had the higher mechanical reliability to be applied in a reprocessing plant. In this study, two types of driving units that use a ball bearing or a magnetic bearing have been developed for it. It was confirmed that they had enough abilities trough endurance tests. The driving unit with ball bearing could be operated continuously for 5000 hours that was equal to a term of an annual operation. It was found that it could be operated for a year without maintenance. JAEA will continue to improve them and select more advantageous one on the basis of economy and lifetime in near future. (authors)