Separation of actinides from lanthanides utilizing molten salt electrorefining

Book · Tue Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1996

OSTI ID:372094

Grimmett, D L; Fusselman, S P; Roy, J J; Gay, R L ^[1]; Krueger, C L; Storvick, T S ^[2]; Inoue, T; Hijikata, T ^[3]; Takahashi, N ^[4]

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1. Rockwell International, Canoga Park, CA (United States). Rocketdyne Div.
2. Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States). Research Reactor Facility
3. Central Research Inst. of Electric Power Industry, Tokyo (Japan). Komae Research Lab.
4. Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd., Tokyo (Japan). Nuclear Systems Div.

TRUMP-S (TRansUranic Management through Pyropartitioning Separation) is a pyrochemical process being developed to separate actinides form fission products in nuclear waste. A key process step involving molten salt electrorefining to separate actinides from lanthanides has been studied on a laboratory scale. Electrorefining of U, Np, Pu, Am, and lanthanide mixtures from molten cadmium at 450 C to a solid cathode utilizing a molten chloride electrolyte resulted in > 99% removal of actinides from the molten cadmium and salt phases. Removal of the last few percent of actinides is accompanied by lowered cathodic current efficiency and some lanthanide codeposition. Actinide/lanthanide separation ratios on the cathode are ordered U > Np > Pu > Am and are consistent with predictions based on equilibrium potentials.

• OSTI ID: 372094
• Report Number(s): CONF-960202-; ISBN 0-87339-312-0; TRN: 96:024130
• Resource Relation: Conference: Annual meeting and exhibition of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), Anaheim, CA (United States), 4-8 Feb 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Light metals 1996; Hale, W. [ed.] [Anglesey Aluminum Metal Ltd., North Wales (United Kingdom)]; PB: 1304 p.
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
05 NUCLEAR FUELS
URANIUM
ELECTROREFINING
NEPTUNIUM
PLUTONIUM
AMERICIUM
RADIOACTIVE WASTES
RADIOACTIVE WASTE PROCESSING
BENCH-SCALE EXPERIMENTS
RARE EARTHS
CHLORIDES
LITHIUM CHLORIDES
POTASSIUM CHLORIDES
CADMIUM CHLORIDES
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
MOLTEN SALTS
ANODES
CADMIUM
LIQUID METALS
DEPOSITION
CATHODES
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA