1. Using High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors for low grade phosphate rock processing
Nils Haneklaus1 , Ewald Schnug2, Harikrishnan Tulsidas3, Frederik Reitsma1
1 Section of Nuclear Power Technology Development, Division of Nuclear Power, IAEA, Vienna International Centre, PO Box 100, A-1400 Vienna, Austria
2 Technical University Braunschweig - Faculty 2 Life Sciences, Pockelsstraße 14, D Braunschweig, Germany
3 Section 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

2. Introduction High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs)
Phosphate rock – overview and uranium content
HTGRs for energy neutral processing of low-grade phosphate rock
Conclusions - outlook

3. High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) Overview
Structure:
Thermal reactor
Coolant: Helium
Moderator: Graphite
Characteristics:
High efficiency
Process heat
Inherent safety characteristics
Flexible fuel (Uranium/Thorium)
Reactor core (pebble bed)
Reactor core (block type)
Side reflector
Helium ≈ 250 ˚C
Helium up to 1000 ˚C

4. (construction side Shandong Province)
High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactors (HTGRs) Past experience – current development
DRAGON( )
PB-1
( )
AVR
( )
FSR
( )
THTR
( )
PBMR
( )
HTTR
(since 1998)
HTR-10
(since 2000)
HTR-PM
(under construction)
HTR-PM
(construction side Shandong Province)

5. 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
Source: accessed

6. Phosphate rock Uranium content
Phosphate rock contains considerable concentrations of ‘valuable’ impurities…
Uranium (up to 400 ppm*)
Thorium (up to 150 ppm*)
…making it one of the largest unconventional uranium resource worldwide
*ppm = parts per million
Conventional uranium resources worldwide (14.413,7*10 t) 1
Estimated recoverable uranium resources from phosphate rock worldwide (5.665,97*10 t) 2
Source: 1IAEA Red Book 2011, 2Ulrich, A.E., Schnug E., Prasser H.-M., Frossard E., Uranium endowments in phosphate rock, Science of the Total Environment 478 (2014)

7. Limitations in Processing Low Grad Phosphate Rock
High temperature gas-cooled reactors for energy neutral processing of low grade phosphate rock
Process Heat for Phosphate conversion and U/Th recovery (thermal process)
Chemicals for Phosphate Rock conversion (wet process)
Phosphate Rock
Phosphate Fertilizer
Relatively Large Amounts of Waste
(≈ 2-3 t P-gypsum per t fertilizer)
Limitations in Processing Low Grad Phosphate Rock
Uranium/Thorium
High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor
Reactor Fuel Manufacturing
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

8. 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
“U/Th fuelled HTGR applications for energy neutral sustainable comprehensive extraction and mineral product developments”
Phosphate Rock
High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor
Reactor Fuel Manufacturing
Uranium/Thorium
Phosphate Fertilizer
Process Heat for Phosphate conversion and U/Th recovery (thermal process)