Patents by Inventor Youji Shibata

Youji Shibata has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Method of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
    Patent number: 7445760
    Abstract: Most part of an amount of uranium contained in the spent nuclear fuel is removed by making fluorine or a fluorochemical act on the spent nuclear fuel to convert the uranium into UF6, and the uranium is purified through a simple method of distilling the UF6 together with a absorbent. After removing the most part of the amount of uranium, the remaining nuclear fuel material is dissolved and then transferred to an extraction process to recover plutonium. By doing so, a small sized dry process can be employed as a uranium purification process. Since the nuclear fuel material is dissolved and extracted after removing most part of an amount of uranium, a volume of processing solution can be reduced and the machine installation scale can be made small. Accordingly, the reprocessing facility can be extremely downsized.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 7, 2001
    Date of Patent: November 4, 2008
    Assignee: Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuo Fukasawa, Masanori Takahashi, Youji Shibata, Akira Sasahira, Mamoru Kamoshida
  • Method of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel
    Publication number: 20020122762
    Abstract: Most part of an amount of uranium contained in the spent nuclear fuel is removed by making fluorine or a fluorochemical act on the spent nuclear fuel to convert the uranium into UF6, and the uranium is purified through a simple method of distilling the UF6 together with a absorbent. After removing the most part of the amount of uranium, the remaining nuclear fuel material is dissolved and then transferred to an extraction process to recover plutonium. By doing so, a small sized dry process can be employed as a uranium purification process. Since the nuclear fuel material is dissolved and extracted after removing most part of an amount of uranium, a volume of processing solution can be reduced and the machine installation scale can be made small. Accordingly, the reprocessing facility can be extremely downsized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 7, 2001
    Publication date: September 5, 2002
    Applicant: HITACHI, LTD.
    Inventors: Tetsuo Fukasawa, Masanori Takahashi, Youji Shibata, Akira Sasahira, Mamoru Kamoshida