Lithium reduction of americium dioxide to generate americium metal

• Published in: Journal of nuclear materials Vol. 304; no. 1; pp. 50 - 55
• Main Authors: Usami, T., Kato, T., Kurata, M., Inoue, T., Sims, H.E., Beetham, S.A., Jenkins, J.A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.07.2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Energy; Exact sciences and technology; Fuels; Nuclear fuels; Preparation and processing of nuclear fuels; R1100; C0400; A0200; P1300; 82.40; O0200; Americium Oxides; Lithium; Nuclear fuel; Pyrometallurgy; Lithium chloride; Reprocessing
• ISSN: 0022-3115; 1873-4820
• DOI: 10.1016/S0022-3115(02)00853-X

The lithium reduction process has been developed for application to a pyrochemical recycle process for oxide fuels. This process uses lithium metal as a reductant to convert oxides of actinide elements to metal. Lithium oxide generated as a product of the reduction would be dissolved in a molten lithium chloride bath to enhance reduction. In this work, the reduction of americium dioxide to its metal was experimentally confirmed. At the end of the reduction, more than 99.9% of the Am was recovered from the salt phase to a solid Am phase. It was also shown that the lithium oxide concentration in lithium chloride is required to be kept under 5.1 wt%. When the concentration of lithium oxide was between 5.1 and 6.3 wt%, americium formed monoxide.