Uranium transport to solid electrodes in pyrochemical reprocessing of nuclear fuel

• Published in: Journal of the Electrochemical Society Vol. 139; no. 12; pp. 3523 - 3528
• Main Authors: TOMCZUK, Z, ACKERMAN, J. P, WOLSON, R. D, MILLER, W. E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pennington, NJ Electrochemical Society 01.12.1992
• Subjects: 052001 > Nuclear Fuels > Waste Processing; 052002 > Nuclear Fuels > Waste Disposal & Storage; 400105 > Separation Procedures; ACTINIDES; Applied sciences; DIFFUSION; ELECTRODES; ELEMENTS; Energy; ENERGY SOURCES; EPITHERMAL REACTORS; Exact sciences and technology; FAST REACTORS; FISSION PRODUCTS; FUELS; INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; ISOTOPES; MANAGEMENT; MANAGEMENT OF RADIOACTIVE AND NON-RADIOACTIVE WASTES FROM NUCLEAR FACILITIES; MATERIALS; METALS; NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; NUCLEAR FUELS; Preparation and processing of nuclear fuels; PYROCHEMICAL REPROCESSING; RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS; RADIOACTIVE WASTE DISPOSAL; RADIOACTIVE WASTE MANAGEMENT; REACTOR MATERIALS; REACTORS; REPROCESSING; SEPARATION PROCESSES; SPENT FUELS; URANIUM; WASTE DISPOSAL; WASTE MANAGEMENT 050800 > Nuclear Fuels > Spent Fuels Reprocessing; Actinide; Uranium; Electrochemical method; Lithium Chlorides; Potassium Chlorides; Nuclear fuel; Plutonium; Reprocessing; Irradiated nuclear fuel; Molten salt
• ISSN: 0013-4651; 1945-7111
• DOI: 10.1149/1.2069109

A unique pyrochemical process developed for the separation of metallic nuclear fuel from fission products by electrotransport through molten LiCl-KCl eutectic salt to solid and liquid metal cathodes. The process allow for recovery and reuse of essentially all of the actinides in spent fuel from the integral fast reactor (IFR) and disposal of wastes in satisfactory forms. Electrotransport is used to minimize reagent consumption and, consequently, waste volume. In particular, electrotransport to solid cathodes is used for recovery of an essentially pure uranium product in the presence of other actinides; removal of pure uranium is used to adjust the electrolyte composition in preparation for recovery of a plutonium-rich mixture with uranium in liquid cadmium cathodes. This paper presents experiments that delineate the behavior of key actinide and rare-earth elements during electrotransport to a solid electrode over a useful range of PuCl[sub 3]/UCl[sub 3] ratios in the electrolyte, a thermodynamic basis for that behavior, and a comparison of the observed behavior with that calculated from a thermodynamic model. This work clearly established that recovery of nearly pure uranium can be a key step in the overall pyrochemical-fuel-processing strategy for the IFR.