• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.3
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• pp.792-799
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• 2019

The present study aims to investigate the fluorination of thorium oxide ($ThO_2$) by ammonium hydrogen difluoride ($NH_4HF_2$). Fluorination was performed at room temperature by mixing $ThO_2$ and $NH_4HF_2$ at different molar ratios, which was then left to react for 20 days. Next, the mixtures were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD) at the intervals of 5, 10, 15, and 20 days, followed by the heating of the mixtures at $450-750^{\circ}C$ with argon gas flow. The characterization of $ThF_4$ was established using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy-dispersion X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX). In this study, ammonium thorium fluoride was synthesized through the fluorination of $ThO_2$ at room temperature. The optimum molar ratio in synthesizing ammonium thorium fluoride was 1.0:5.5 ($ThO_2:NH_4HF_2$) with 5 days reaction time. In addition, the heating of ammonium thorium fluoride at $450^{\circ}C$ was sufficient to produce $ThF_4$. Overall, this study proved that $NH_4HF_2$ is one of the fluorination agents that is capable of synthesizing $ThF_4$.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2418-2425
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• 2021

Monazite is a phosphate mineral that contains thorium (Th) and rare earth elements. The Th concentration in monazite can be as high as 500 ppm, and it has the potential to be used as fuel in the nuclear power system. Therefore, this study aimed to conduct the techno-economic analysis (TEA) of Th extraction in the form of thorium oxide (ThO₂) from monazite. Th can be extracted from monazite through an alkaline fusion method. The TEA of ThO₂ production studied parameters, including raw materials, equipment costs, total plant direct and indirect costs, and direct fixed capital cost. These parameters were calculated for the production of 0.5, 1, and 10 ton ThO₂ per batch. The TEA study revealed that the highest production cost was ascribed to installed equipment. Furthermore, the highest return on investment (ROI) of 21.92% was achieved for extraction of 1 ton/batch of ThO₂, with a payback time of 4.56 years. With further increase in ThO₂ production to 10 ton/batch, the ROI was decreased to 5.37%. This is mainly due to a significant increase in the total capital investment with increasing ThO₂ production scale. The minimum unit production cost was achieved for 1 ton ThO₂/batch equal to 335.79 $/Kg ThO₂.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.1560-1569
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• 2022

Liquid fueled molten salt reactors (MSRs) have seen renewed interest because of their inherent safety features, higher thermal efficiency and potential for efficient thorium utilisation for power generation. Thorium fluoride is one of the salts used in liquid fueled MSRs employing Th-U cycle. In the present study, ThF₄ was prepared by hydro-fluorination of ThO₂ using anhydrous HF gas. Process parameters viz. bed depth, hydrofluorination time and hydrofluorination temperature, were optimized for the preparation of ThF₄ in a static bed reactor setup. The products were characterized with X-Ray diffraction and experimental conditions for complete conversion to ThF₄ were established which also corroborated with the yield values. Hydrofluorination of ThO₂ at 450 ℃ for half an hour at a bed depth of 6 mm gave the best result, with a yield of about 99.36% ThF₄. No unconverted oxide or any other impurity was observed. Rietveld refinement was performed on the XRD data of this ThF₄, and Chi2 value of 3.54 indicated good agreement between observed and calculated profiles.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.631-640
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• 2019

Thorium ($^{232}Th$) is four times more abundant than uranium in nature and has become a new important source of energy in the future. This is due to the ability of thorium to undergo the bombardment of neutron to produce uranium-233 ($^{233}U$). The aim of this study is to investigate the production cost of thorium oxide ($ThO_2$) resulted from the thorium extraction process. Four main parameters were studied which include raw material and chemical cost, total capital investment, direct cost and indirect cost. These parameters were justified to obtain the final production cost for the thorium extraction process. The result showed that the raw material costs were $63,126.00 - $104,120.77 (0.5 ton), $126,252.00 - $178,241.53 (1.0 ton), and $1,262,520.00 - $1,782,415.33 (10.0 tons). The total installed equipment and total cost investment were estimated to be approximately $11,542,984.10 and $13,274,431.715 respectively. Hence, the total costs for producing 1 kg $ThO_2$ were $6829.79 - $6911.78, $3540.95 - $3592.94, and $501.18 - $553.17 for 0.5, 1.0, and 10.0 tons respectively. The result concluded that with higher mass production, the cost of 1 kg $ThO_2$ would be reduced which in this scenario, the lowest production cost was $$501.18kg^{-1}$-$$553.17kg^{-1}$ for 10.0 tons of $ThO_2$ production.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.674-680
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• 2020

We used MCNP6 computer code to model HTR-10 core reactor. We used two types of fuel; UO₂ and (Th+Pu)O₂ mixture. We determined the critical height at which the reactor approached criticality in both two cases. The neutronic and burnup parameters were investigated. The results indicated that the core fueled with mixed (Th+Pu)O₂, achieved about 24% higher fuel cycle length than the UO₂ case. It also enhanced safeguard security by burning Pu isotopes. The results were compared with previously published papers and good agreements were found.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.39 no.12
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• pp.946-954
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• 1995

The physico-chemical nature of the rare earth oxide which was produced by the caustic fritting of monazite was studied to furnish fundamental data that are required for its efficient use and processing. It was found that the material which was mainly constituted of light rare earths and thorium was a solid solution phase of oxide whose structure was fluorite-type face centered cubic. Its density was 6.75 g/$cm^3$ and it had a uniform particle size distribution at around 1 ${\mu}m.$ The crystallinity improved by heating to elevated temperatures, whereas the solubility in HCl decreased as the crystallinity improved. Complete dissolution in conc. HCl solution in short time (30 min.) was attained by heating to 70$^{\circ}C$. The measurement of zeta potential showed its I.E.P. to be at pH 8.6 of the suspension.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.53 no.7
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• pp.2095-2103
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• 2021

A small power ADS design using thorium oxide and diluent matrix reprocessed fuel is proposed for a high transmutation rate, small reactivity swing, and strong safety features. Two fuel matrices (CERCER and CERMET) and different recycled fuel compositions recovered from UO₂ spent fuels with 45 GWd/tU and 60 GWd/tU burnup were investigated to determine the suitable fuel for the ADS. It was found that the transmutation of each isotope depends on TRU initial loading amount. After examining the cores, the results show that CERCER fueled ADS has a negative coolant void reactivity (CVR) and a smaller radiotoxicity at discharge compared to that of CERMET core. It implies that CERCER fuel has enhanced safety features and more flavor in terms of radiotoxicity management. To increase fuel utilization and core operation efficiency, a simple assembly shuffling pattern for the CERCER fueled ADS is also proposed. Eigenvalue and burnup calculations were conducted using Serpent 2 with ENDF/B-VII.0 library in both kcode and external source modes, and it indicates that the results of transmutation analyses obtained by kcode only is reliable to discuss the transmutation potential of ADS. Burnup calculation with the fixed-source mode is essential to be used for more practical results of the transmutation by ADS.