Pyrochemical fuel cycle technologies for processing of spent nuclear fuels

Koyama, Tadafumi; Iizuka, Masatoshi

doi:10.1016/b978-1-78242-212-9.00018-6

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Molten salts are studied in the nuclear industry because of their resistance to radiolysis and their large electrochemical window allowing the production of actinide metals. Chloride salts, and particularly the LiCl-KCl eutectic, has been proposed and used in semi industrial scale as solvent for the treatment of U-Zr and U-Pu-Zr irradiated metallic fuels by electro-refining [1][2][3] . In this electrolytic process, actinides and fission products (mainly alkali metals and lanthanides) are anodically dissolved in the molten salt while pure uranium metal can be collected on inert cathode [4] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemistry of uranium in molten LiCl-LiF

Geran

Chamelot

Serp

et al. 2020

Electrochimica Acta

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This work is focused on the electrochemical behaviour of uranium in molten eutectic LiCl-LiF (70-30 mol%) in the 550-650 °C temperature range. On tungsten electrode, U(III) ions were reduced in one step to U metal exchanging 3 electrons and oxidized also in one step to U(IV) exchanging one electron. Both systems were studied by cyclic and square wave voltammetries and chronopotentiometry. The reduction and oxidation mechanisms of U(III) ions were found to be diffusion controlled processes. The diffusion coefficient of U(III) was measured at different temperatures, and it followed an Arrhenius "type law". Apparent standard potentials were measured in chloride-fluoride (LiCl-LiF eutectic) and pure chloride media (LiC-KCl eutectic). The addition of fluoride ions into a chloride salt leads to the formation of more stable complexes reduced at more negative potentials. This shift of reduction potentials is more pronounced for the U(IV)/U(III) transition ( ~5 00 mV) than for the U(III)/U system ( ~1 00 mV).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemistry of uranium in molten LiCl-LiF

Geran

Chamelot

Serp

et al. 2020

Electrochimica Acta

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“…Currently, the molten salt based electrorefining process is a very promising method for recycling metallic spent nuclear fuel (SNF) as compared to conventional hydrometallurgical processing, primarily due to its higher radiation resistance, smaller volume of secondary waste and higher resistance against nuclear proliferation. [1][2][3][4] Uranium accounts for 95% of SNF, 5 and thus, the study of the electrochemical properties of uranium in the molten salt-based electrolytes is of high importance.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Application of Low-Melting LiCl-KCl-CsCl Eutectic to Electrodeposit Uranium Metal

Liu¹,

Sun²,

Zhu³

et al. 2019

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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The aim of this work is to explore the electrodeposition of uranium in low-melting LiCl-KCl-CsCl eutectic. A variety of conventional electrochemical techniques, including cyclic voltammetry (CV), chronopotentiometry (CP), and chronoamperometry (CA), were employed to study the electrochemical and kinetic properties of uranium at different temperatures ranging from 573 to 872 K. First, the electrochemical behaviors and diffusion coefficients of uranium species in the melts were investigated and compared to the published results. The temperature significantly affects the cathodic current response of the U 4+ /U 3+ couple within the low temperature range. Moreover, the nucleation mechanisms of uranium in the electrodeposition process were evaluated, and the results indicated that nucleation and growth tend to occur via the same instantaneous mode at all applied temperatures and overpotential ranges. Finally, metallic uranium was deposited by potentiostatic electrolysis at an overpotential of −100 mV vs. U 3+ /U at different temperatures, and their morphologies and compositions were characterized by SEM-EDS and XRD, respectively. The results show that from 573 to 773 K, uranium deposits evolve form one-dimensional needle-like to multidimensional dendritic structures. No dendrite-free uranium deposits were obtained in the CsCl-containing melts regardless of the temperature.

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“…Engineering technologies for scaled-up process equipment such as counter current extractor and electrorefiner as well as basic data sets for actinides and FP elements in chloride molten salt are currently available [20]. Figure 2 shows a scene of an experiment to demonstrate the fluid dynamics of high temperature chloride molten salt for designing transport equipment [21].…”

Section: Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (Imsfr)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Reducing the Burden of High Level Radioactive Waste with Transmutation — Proposal of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR)

Yamawaki

Koyama

2016

Journal of Nuclear and Radiochemical Sciences

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The transmutation methods to reduce the burden of high level radioactive waste had been compared to identify the most suitable method for this purpose. The results showed that the molten salt reactor (MSR) was suggested to be an effective transmutation system. Based on this result, a new concept of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR) as a highly efficient transmutation system for transuranium elements has been proposed in this study; the system consists of a combination of an MSR fuelled with chloride molten salt fuel and the chloride-based pyrochemical processing subsystem. In this system MSR fuel can be transferred between the reactor core and the pyrochemical processing subsystem without chemical form change.

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Pyrochemical fuel cycle technologies for processing of spent nuclear fuels

Cited by 11 publications

References 74 publications

Electrochemistry of uranium in molten LiCl-LiF

Electrochemistry of uranium in molten LiCl-LiF

The Application of Low-Melting LiCl-KCl-CsCl Eutectic to Electrodeposit Uranium Metal

Reducing the Burden of High Level Radioactive Waste with Transmutation — Proposal of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR)

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Pyrochemical fuel cycle technologies for processing of spent nuclear fuels

Cited by 11 publications

References 74 publications

Electrochemistry of uranium in molten LiCl-LiF

Electrochemistry of uranium in molten LiCl-LiF

The Application of Low-Melting LiCl-KCl-CsCl Eutectic to Electrodeposit Uranium Metal

Reducing the Burden of High Level Radioactive Waste with Transmutation &mdash; Proposal of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR)

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Reducing the Burden of High Level Radioactive Waste with Transmutation — Proposal of Integral Molten Salt Fast Reactor (IMSFR)