Electrochemical reduction of UO2 in LiCl–Li2O molten salt using porous and nonporous anode shrouds

Use of a single fuel containment material during pyroprocessing tests

“…2a shows a schematic of the cell used for the electrolytic reduction process. The details pertaining to the experimental methods and procedures for the electrolytic reduction process have been described in our previous report (Choi et al, 2014). The electrolysis cell consists of a crucible, three electrodes including a cathode, an anode and a reference electrode, and the molten salt medium.…”

“…The use of the STS wire mesh allows the molten salts to pass through with ease in addition to helping in decreasing the amount of residual salt in the fuel, a consequence of having sufficient number of openings in the mesh (Choi et al, 2012a(Choi et al, , 2013(Choi et al, , 2014Herrmann et al, 2006;Herrmann and Li, 2010). In previous works involving the study of the pyroprocessing series, the metallic product produced during the electrolytic reduction process was unloaded from the STS wire mesh basket cathode and subsequently reloaded into a new basket, which was used as the anode during an electrorefining process (Herrmann and Li, 2010;Sakamura and Omori, 2010;Sakamura and Akagi, 2012).…”

Diffusion of oxygen in hypostoichiometric uranium dioxide nanocrystals. A molecular dynamics simulation

“…Recently, considerable efforts have been directed towards experimental research for the development of a nonaqueous technology for reprocessing irradiated nuclear fuel [1][2][3][4]. The key technology for highly efficient processing of such fuels is pyrolysis combined with molten salt electrolysis.…”

“…The crystal becomes hypostoichiometric, and the relative content of uranium increases in the course of uranium reduction up to the complete oxygen removal. The described technique has been well studied experimentally [1][2][3][4][5][6]; however, further optimization of the technology requires an understanding of the mechanisms of oxygen release at the atomic level. These mechanisms remain insufficiently studied to date.…”

Presence of Li Clusters in Molten LiCl-Li

“…Electrolytic reduction in molten LiCl-Li 2 O electrolytes is commonly used in the conversion of TiO 2 1 , SiO 2 2 , Ta 2 O 5 3 , Nb 2 O 5 4 , and UO 2 (oxide nuclear fuel) to their base metals 5 6 7 8 . In several of these processes, notably the reduction of actinide oxides, Li + is unavoidably co-reduced with the desired metal oxide, and as a result, elemental Li (Li) is formed and dispersed into the molten salt electrolyte as the process proceeds 9 10 . The dissolution of Li in the electrolyte results in a loss of current efficiency in these processes and therefore is of significant interest.…”