Recycling irradiated nuclear graphite—A greener path forward

Here we report the successful recycle of irradiated graphite to fabricate new nuclear graphite using conventional manufacturing processes (albeit on a bench scale). Radiological concerns such as the containment of contamination in industrial scale manufacturing plants, or the release of 14C, were not considered. Moreover, a study of the annealing kinetics was conducted to elucidate the extent of property recovery over a representative temperature range. The goal of the preliminary work reported here was to determine if nuclear graphite, produced through the normal graphite fabrication process, but using crushed, previously irradiated nuclear graphite could be manufactured with sufficient mechanical integrity to warrant further investigation.