• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.175-182
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• 2008

The results of process development for the blending of waste salt from the electrorefining of spent fuel with zeolite-A are presented. This blending is a key step in the ceramic waste process being used for treatment of EBR-II spent fuel and is accomplished using a high-temperature v-blender. A labscale system was used with non-radioactive surrogate salts to determine optimal particle size distributions and time at temperature. An engineering-scale system was then installed in the Hot Fuel Examination Facility hot cell and used to demonstrate blending of actual electrorefiner salt with zeolite. In those tests, it was shown that the results are still favorable with actinide-loaded salt and that batch size of this v-blender could be increased to a level consistent with efficient production operations for EBR-II spent fuel treatment. One technical challenge that remains for this technology is to mitigate the problem of material retention in the v-blender due to formation of caked patches of salt/zeolite on the inner v-blender walls.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.163-174
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• 2008

As part of the spent fuel treatment program at the Idaho National Laboratory, a vacuum distillation process is being employed for the recovery of actinide products following an electrorefining process. Separation of the actinide products from a molten salt electrolyte and cadmium is achieved by a batch operation called cathode processing. A cathode processor has been designed and developed to efficiently remove the process chemicals and consolidate the actinide products for further processing. This paper describes the fundamentals of cathode processing, the evolution of the equipment design, the operation and efficiency of the equipment, and recent developments at the cathode processor. In addition, challenges encountered during the processing of irradiated spent nuclear fuel in the cathode processor will be discussed.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.1013-1021
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• 2024

A series of experiments were performed to produce a fuel source for a molten salt reactor (MSR) through pyroprocessing technology. A simulated LiCl-KCl-UCl₃-NdCl₃ salt system was prepared, and the U element was fully recovered using a liquid cadmium cathode (LCC) by applying a constant current. As a result, the salt was purified with an UCl₃ concentration lower than 100 ppm. Subsequently, the U/RE ingot was prepared by melting U and RE metals in Y₂O₃ crucible at 1473 K as a surrogate for RE-rich ingot product from pyroprocessing. The produced ingot was sliced and used as a working electrode in LiCl-KCl-LaCl₃ salt. Only RE elements were then anodically dissolved by applying potential at - 1.7 V versus Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The RE-removed ingot product was used to produce UCl₃ via the reaction with NH4Cl in a sealed reactor.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.43-48
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• 2011

The maximum current density of copper electrorefining is 350 A/$m^2$ and the higher current density is required to promote the copper productivity. The 1000 A/$m^2$ high current density is possible when rotating disc electrode is employed to reduce diffusion thickness. The copper electroplating with 1000 A/$m^2$ is possible at 400 rpm. Thiourea and glue were used to improve the electrodeposition behaviors during copper electrorefining process. Potentiodynamic polarization tests were conducted to investigate the effects of additives on copper electrodeposition. Galvanostatic tests were also conducted at 1000 A/$m^2$. Copper were electroplated on cylindrical rotating electrodes to give the uniform flow on the electrode surface. The lowest surface roughness was obtained when 16 ppm thiourea was added to the electrolytes. The surface roughness was increased with glue concentration. The surface hardness was not influenced by addition of glue. The copper nuclei were getting smaller with thiourea concentration, however there is no glue effects on copper nucleation.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.273-280
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• 2012

The electrochemical behaviors of 10 g-scale fresh and oxidized Zircaloy-4 cladding hulls were examined in $500^{\circ}C$ LiCl-KCl molten salts to confirm the feasibility of the electrorefining process for the treatment of hull wastes. In the results of measuring the potential-current response using a stainless steel basket filled with oxidized Zircaloy-4 hull specimens, the oxidation peak of Zr appears to be at -0.7 to -0.8 V vs. Ag/AgCl, which is similar to that of fresh Zircaloy-4 hulls, while the oxidation current is found to be much smaller than that of fresh Zircaloy-4 hulls. These results are congruent with the outcome of current-time curves at -0.78 V and of measuring the change in the average weight and thickness after the electrochemical dissolution process. Although the oxide layer on the surface affects the uniformity and rate of dissolution by decreasing the conductivity of Zircaloy-4 hulls, electrochemical dissolution is considered to occur owing to the defect of the surface and phase properties of the Zr oxide layer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.337-337
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• 2004

As one of researches for the P ＆ T purposes, a basic experiment on the recovery of actinide elements from the mixture with rare earth elements by means of electrorefining using a liquid cadmium cathode in the LiCl-KC1 eutectic melt was carried out. In order to examine the behaviors of electrodeposition of metal ions on a liquid electrode, recovery experiments of rare earth metals resulting from forming electrodeposits were performed by a galvanostatic electrolysis method at various current densities. A cyclic voltammetric technique was applied to determine reduction-oxidation potential of each metal element in the melt and to detect the changes of the multi component melt composition for on-line monitoring. Also, a collaboration study with RIAR was completed to test the preliminary feasibility on a recovery of actinide elements from the mixture with rare earth elements using a liquid cadmium cathode and actinide metals. Experimental results showed that the ratio of actinides to rare earths, 9: 0.5∼1 led to the rare earth content of about 5∼10 wt% in the deposit.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11b
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• pp.176-181
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• 2005

The electrolytic reduction process and the electrorefining process, which are being developed at the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), are to generate molten waste salts such as LiCI salt and LiCI-KCI eutectic salt, respectively. Our goal in waste salt management is to minimize a total waste generation and fabricate a very low­leaching waste form such as a ceramic waste form. Zeolite has been known to one of the most desirable media to immobilize waste salt, which is water soluble and easily radiolyzed. Zeolite can be also used to the removal of fission products from the spent waste salt. Molten LiCI salt is mixed with zeolite A at $650^{\circ}C$ to form a salt-loaded zeolite, and then thermally treated in above $900^{\circ}C$ to become an immobilized product with crystal phase of $Li_{8}Cl_{2}$-Sodalite. In this work, a crystal phase changes of immobilization medium, zeolite, during immobilization of molten LiCI salt using zeolite A is introduced.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.421-425
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• 2003

The reductive extraction process is an important step to refine the TRU product from the electrorefining process for the preparation of transmutation reactor fuel. In this study, it was studied on the reductive extraction between the eutectic salt and Bi metal phases. The solutes were zirconium and the rare earth elements, where zirconium was used as a surrogate for the transuranic(TRU) elements. All the experiments were performed in a glove box filled with a argon gas. Li-Bi alloy was used as a reducing agent to reduce the high chemical activity of Li. The reductive extraction characteristics were examined using ICP, XRD and EPMA analysis. The reduction reaction was equilibrated within 3 hours after the Li addition. Three eutectic salt systems were compared and Zr was successfully separated from the rare earth elements in all the three salt systems.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.373-382
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• 2020

This study proposes a method of separating uranium (U) and minor actinides from rare earth (RE) elements in the LiCl-KCl salt system. Several RE metals were used to reduce UCl₃ and MgCl₂ from the eutectic LiCl-KCl salt systems. Five experiments were performed on drawdown U and plutonium (Pu) surrogate elements from RECl₃-enriched LiCl-KCl salt systems at 773 K. Via the introduction of RE metals into the salt system, it was observed that the UCl₃ concentration can be lowered below 100 ppm. In addition, UCl₃ was reduced into a powdery form that easily settled at the bottom and was successfully collected by a salt distillation operation. When the RE metals come into contact with a metallic structure, a galvanic interaction occurs dominantly, seemingly accelerating the U recovery reaction. These results elucidate the development of an effective and simple process that selectively removes actinides from electrorefining salt, thus contributing to the minimization of the influx of actinides into the nuclear fuel waste stream.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.215-222
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• 2006

The passivity behavior of copper anode containing impurities in copper sulfate solution for electrorefining process was studied at several different levels of impurities such as As, Sb, Bi and Pb. The passivity behavior was investigated by electrochemical techniques (galvanostatic, potentiodynamic and cyclic voltammetry tests) and surface analysis (optical microscopy, electron probe microanalysis, scanning electron microscopy). The results were that arsenic, antimony inhibited passivation and bismuth accelerated it and lead containing anode showed different passivity behavior from above anodes. The improved passivity characteristics could be explained by decrease in oxygen content in passivity film which resulted from a reaction among the impurities, oxygen and copper in the anode. The SEM image revealed that arsenic or antimony containing anode exhibited a porous passivity film and bismuth containing anode showed the compact passivity film and lead containing anode had loose passivity film on anode.