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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.net.2015.04.005

A MODEL STUDY ON MULTISTEP RECOVERY OF ACTINIDES BASED ON THE DIFFERENCE IN DIFFUSION COEFFICIENTS WITHIN LIQUID METAL  

CHUN, YOUNG-MIN (School of Materials Science and Engineering, Pusan National University)
SHIN, HEON-CHEOL (School of Materials Science and Engineering, Pusan National University)
Publication Information
Nuclear Engineering and Technology / v.47, no.5, 2015 , pp. 588-595 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study presents an effective method for additional recovery of residual actinides in liquid electrodes after the electrowinning process of pyroprocessing. The major distinctive feature of this method is a reactor with multiple reaction cells separated by partition walls in order to improve the recovery yield, thereby using the interelement difference in diffusion coefficients within the liquid electrode and controlling the selectivity and purity of element recovery. Through an example of numerical simulation of the diffusion scenarios of individual elements, we verified that the proposed method could effectively separate the actinides (U and Pu) and rare-earth elements contained in liquid cadmium. We performed a five-step consecutive recovery process using a simplified conceptual reaction cell and recovered 58% of the initial amount of actinides (U + Pu) in high purity (${\geq}99%$).
Keywords
Actinide; Diffusion coefficient; Liquid metal; Pyroprocessing; Recovery;
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Times Cited By KSCI : 3  (Citation Analysis)
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