• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.263-269
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• 2015

It is necessary to investigate the electrodeposition behavior of uranium and other elements on the cathode in the electrorefining process to recover the uranium selectively from the reduced metals of the electrolytic reduction process since transuranic elements and rare earth elements is dissolved in the LiCl-KCl eutectic salt. Study on separation factors of U, Ce, Y and Nd based on U and Ce was performed to investigate the deposition behavior of the cathode with respect to the concentration of rare earth elements in LiCl-KCl eutectic salt. After electrorefining with constant current mode by using Ce metal as a sacrifice anode, the contents of U, Ce, Y and Nd in the salt phase and the deposit phase of the cathode were analyzed, and separation factors of the elements were obtained from the analyses. Securing conditions of pure uranium recovery in the elctrorefining process was investigated by considering the separation factors with respect to $UCl_3$ and $CeCl_3/UCl_3$ ratio.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.315-319
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• 2015

A high-throughput electrorefiner has been developed for commercialization use by enhancing the uranium recovery from the reduced metal which is produced from the oxide reduction process. It is necessary to scrap and effectively collect uranium dendrites from the surface of the solid cathode for high yield. When a steel electrode is used as the cathode in the electrorefining process, uranium is deposited and regularly stuck to the steel cathode during electrorefining. The sticking coefficient of a steel cathode is very high. In order to decrease the sticking coefficient of the steel cathode effectively, vibration mode was applied to the electrode in this study. Uranium dendrites were scraped and fell apart from the steel cathode by a vibration force. The vibrational scraping of the steel cathode was compared to the self-scraping of the graphite cathode. Effects of the applied current density and the vibration stroke on the scraping of the uranium dendrites were also investigated.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.229-236
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• 2012

A molten salt technology using $Li_2O$-LiCl has been extensively investigated to recover uranium metal from spent fuels in the field of nuclear energy. In the reduction process, it is an important point to maintain the concentration of $Li_2O$. $ZrO_2$ is inevitably contained in the spent fuels because Zr is one of the main components of fuel rod hulls. Therefore, the fate of $ZrO_2$ in $Li_2O$-LiCl molten salt has been investigated. It was found that $Li_2ZrO_3$ and $Li_4ZrO_4$ were formed chemically and electrochemically and they were not reduced to Zr. The recycling of $Li_2O$ is the key mechanism ruling the total reaction in the electrolytic reduction process. However, $ZrO_2$ will have a role as a $Li_2O$ sink.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.14-21
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• 1992

Allanite crystals rich in rare-earth elements(REE) occur in soil developed on top of anorthositic rocks in the Jungsu-ri area of Okjong-myun, Hadong-run, where large Ti orebodies are embedded in the bed rock. In this study allanite is investigated mainly by transmitted light microscopy, electron microprobe analysis, atomic absoption spectrophotometry, X-ray diffraction, infrared spectrocopy. In addition, its specific gravity and micro=indentation hardness value are measured. Allanite occurs with max. dimension of $3cm{\times}6cm$ and coexists with quartz, epidote, zircon, biotite and muscovite. It shows nearly nonmetamict crystallinity, although ${\alpha}$-particles bombardment from the disintegration of the radioactive element Th is detected by an autoradiography. The allanite is particularly enriched in REE(19.88-23.99 wt.%), but is deficient in CaO(8.35-10.29wt.%). Genesis of the allanite in this area is not understood yet. It is, however, assumed to have been formed from magmatic fluid rich in REE and Ti, based on the facts that it ocexists with zircon and that it has high $TiO_2$(0.89-1.13 wt.%) whose concentration is significant in the country rocks.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.525-531
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• 2006

In this study, Sulfonated PONF-g-styrene ion exchange fibers were synthesized by radiation induced graft copolymerization. And also, hybride ion exchange fibers, which was combined sulfonated PONF-g-styrene fibers and cationic ion exchange resin, were fabricated by hot melt adhesion method and then their adsorption properties were investigated. ion exchange capacity and water content of hybrid ion exchange fibers increased as compared with those of bead and ion exchange fiber. Their maximum values were 4.76 meq/g and 23.5%, respectively. Adsorption breakthrough time for mercury of hybrid ion exchange fiber was slower than those of bead resin and fibrous ion exchanger. It's value was 130 minutes. Their breakthrough time become short as increasing of pH, and concentration. The initial breakthrough time was observed before and after 10 minutes as increasing of concentration. The adsorption of hybrid ion exchange fibers for $Hg^{2+}\;Pb^{2+},\;Cd^{2+}$ among heavy metals in the mixed solution was observed before 20 min. And also, The adsorption for $Hg^{2+}$ among the heavy metals by hybride ion exchange fibers was observed.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.41-48
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• 2010

Uranium deposits from an electrorefining process contain about 30% salt. In order to recover pure uranium and transform it into an ingot, the salts have to be removed from the uranium deposits. Major process variables for the salt distillation process of the uranium deposits are hold temperature and vacuum pressure. Effects of the variables on the salt removal efficiency were studied in the previous study[1]. By applying the Hertz-Langmuir relation to the salt evaporation of the uranium deposits, the evaporation coefficients were obtained at the various conditions. The operational conditions for achieving above 99% salt removal were deduced. The salt distilled uranium deposits tend to form the eutectic melt with iron, nickel, chromium for structural material of salt evaporator. In this study, we investigated the hold temperature limitation in order to prevent the formation of the eutetic melt between urnaium and other metals. The reactions between the uranium metal and stainless steel were tested at various conditions. And for enhancing the evaporation rate of the salt and the efficient recovery of the distilled salt, the thermal analysis of the salt distiller was conducted by using commercial CFX software. From the thermal analysis, the effect of Ar gas flow on the evaporation of the salt was studied.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.1-7
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• 2010

In the present work, an electrowinning process in the LiCl-KCl/Cd system is considered to model and analyze the electrotransport of the actinide and rare-earth elements. A simple dynamic modeling of this process was performed by taking into account the material balances and diffusion-controlled electrochemical reactions in a diffusion boundary layer at an electrode interface between the molten salt electrolyte and liquid cadmium cathode. The proposed modeling approach was based on the half-cell reduction reactions of metal chloride occurring on the cathode. This model demonstrated a capability for the prediction of the concentration behaviors, a faradic current of each element and an electrochemical potential as function of the time up to the corresponding electrotransport satisfying a given applied current based on a galvanostatic electrolysis. The results of selected case studies including five elements (U, Pu, Am, La, Nd) system are shown, and a preliminary simulation is carried out to show how the model can be used to understand the electrochemical characteristics and provide better information for developing an advanced electrowinner.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.19-35
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• 2014

A parametric sensitivity to the annual exposure dose rate to the farming exposure group has been probabilistically carried out for three principal elements associated with the nuclide transport behavior in the near-field of the pyroprocessed waste repository system. Credit time for both metal and ceramic containers, annual nuclide release rete, and the degree of loss of bentonite buffer around the container are selected as the elements and investigated for important nuclides. All the elements are shown to be sensitive to the results. Methodology studied through this study and the results are expected to make a good feedback to the repository design. As a follow-up study, separated in Part 2, the A-KRS will be deterministically assessed and then compared among each other with the normal, the worst, and the best case scenarios associated with their extreme values these elements could have.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.65-74
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• 1970

Formation of the complexes of alkaline earths with citrate ions in aqueous, acetone-water and ethanol-water solutions was studied at room temperature by the equilibrium exchange technique. This technique involved the measurements of distribution of radioactivity between cation exchange resin and solution phase after the radioactive metal ions were equilibriated with the cation exchange resin in the presence of citrate ions ($Cit^{3-}$) of varying concentrations. The pH of the solutions was controlled to 7.2-7.5, and the ionic strength of the solutions was kept at 0.10-0.12. The present study revealed that both barium and strontium ions formed the one to one citrate complexes, $[M Cit]^-$ in all solvent systems examined. It was also observed that calcium ions formed the one to one citrate complex in aqueous solution. In acetone-water and ethanol-water solutions, however, calcium ions were observed to form both one to one and one to two complexes, $[Ca Cit]^-$ and $[Ca\;Cit_2]^{4-}$. The results of the present study indicated also that relative stabilities of the complexes increased in the order; $Ba^{++}\;<\;Sr^{++}\;<\;Ca^{++}$, and in the order of increasing concentration of the organic components in the mixed solvent systems.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2009

An electrolytic system (zinc anode-gallium cathode) was setup to evaluate the performance of several stirrers prepared for this study, where stirrers have been used to prevent uranium from forming dendrite on the cathode in pyrochemical process. In the case of no-stirring condition, zinc dendrites began to grow on the gallium surface in 1 hour and some dendrite grew out of the cathode crucible around 6 hours. When a rectangular stirrer or a tilt stirrer was rotated, at 40${\sim}$150 rpm, to mix the liquid gallium cathode, dendritic growth of zinc metal was prevented irrespective of revolution speed, but some of the deposits overflowed out of the cathode crucible owing to the large centrifugal forces at 150 rpm. The harrow stirrer did not nearly retard the dendrite growth at 40 rpm, but the dendrite growth was retarded at higher than 100 rpm and the zinc deposits also did not overflow at 150 rpm. Pounder could also prevent the dendrite growth to some extent but it had some difficulties in operation compared with other types of stirrers.