• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.251-259
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• 2004

In the development of the advanced spent fuel management process based on the molten salt technology, it is essential to choose the optimum material for the process equipment handling molten salt. Corrosion behavior of Ni 200 and Ni-base alloys in molten salt of LiCl-$Li_2$O under oxidation atmosphere was investigated in the temperature range of $650～800^{\circ}C$ for 24～312 hrs. The order of corrosion rate was Ni 200 > Inconel 690 > Inconel 601 > Inconel 600. Inconel 600 alloy showed the highest corrosion resistance among the examined alloys, but Ni 200 exhibited the highest corrosion rate. Corrosion products of Inconel 600 and Inconel 601 were $Cr_2$$O_3$ and $NiFe_2$$O_4$. In case of Inconel 690, a single layer of $CrO_2$$O_3$ was formed in the early stage of corrosion and an outer layer of $NiFe_2$O$_4$ and inner layer of $Cr_2$$O_3$ were formed with increase of corrosion time. Inconel 600 showed local corrosion behavior and Inconel 601, 690 showed uniform corrosion behavior.

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.770-771
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2010.10a
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• pp.223-224
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• 2010

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.13 no.10
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• pp.940-948
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• 2007

The Advanced Spent Fuel Conditioning Process(ACP), which is the process of the reduction of uranium oxide by lithium metal in a high temperature molten salt bath for spent fuel, was developed at Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI). Since the ACP equipment is located in an intense radiation field (hot cell) as well as in a high temperature, it must be remotely operated and maintained. The ACP hot cell is very narrow so the workspace of the wall-mounted mechanical Master-Slave Manipulators(MSMs) is restricted. A Bridge Transported Servo Manipulator(BTSM) system has been developed to overcome the limitation of an access that is a drawback of the mechanical MSMs. The BTSM system consists ot a bridge crane with telescoping tubeset, a slave manipulator, a master manipulator, and a control system. We applied a bilateral position-position control scheme with friction compensation as force-reflecting controller. In this paper, the transmission characteristics on the tendon-and-pulley train is numerically formulated and analyzed. Also, we evaluate the performance of the force-reflecting servo manipulator.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.131-144
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• 2010

The Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has been developing pyroprocessing technology for recycling useful resources from spent fuel since 1997. The process includes pretreatment, electroreduction, electrorefining, electrowinning, and a waste salt treatment system. This paper briefly addresses unit processes and related innovative technologies. As for the electroreduction step, a stainless steel mesh basket was applied for adaption of granules of uranium oxide. This basket was designed for ready handling and transfer of feed material. A graphite cathode was used for the continuous collection of uranium dendrite in the electrorefining system. This enhances the throughput of the electrorefiner. A particular mesh type stirrer was designed to inhibit uranium spill-over at the liquid Cd crucible. A residual actinide recovery system was also tested to recover TRU tracer. In order to reduce the waste volume, a crystallization method is employed for Cs and Sr removal. Experiments on the unit processes were tested successfully, and based on the results, engineering-scale equipment has been designed for the PRIDE (PyRoprocess Integrated inactive DEmonstration facility).

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Resources Recycling Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.218-226
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• 2004

Solvent extraction and stripping experiments were conducted to separate iron from a spent $FeCl_3$ etching solution containing nickel. In the extraction, PC88A, MIBK and Alamine336 were tested as an extractant in various diluents. Alamine336 salt in toluene led to the highest extraction percentage of iron. Stripping percentage of iron from the loaded organic by Alamine336 increased with decreasing HCl conentration of stripping solution and with increasing volume ratio of aqueous to organic. In the operation of bench scale mixer-settler, 7 extraction stage with 1.0M Alamine336 salt in toluene and 10 stripping stage with 0.01M HCl solution resulted in a stripped solution with 133g/L of iron and in a raffinate with most of nickel together with a small amount of iron when the flow rate ratio of organic to aqueous was 7.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2004.06a
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• pp.319-329
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• 2004

The electrorefining experiments with an anode composed of U, Y, Gd, Nd and Ce (or U, Gd, Dy and Ce) were carried out in the KC1-LiCl eutectic melt at $500^{\circ}C$, Uranium was the major component in the cathode deposits at the high initial uranium concentration, and the separation factors of the uranium with respect to the rare earths (REs) were calculated according to the applied voltage and the uranium concentration in the molten salt. The current efficiency was inversely in proportion to the applied voltage in the range of 1.0 V to 1, 9 V (vs. STS304L). The dependency of the applied voltage on the current efficiency as well as the deposition rate was discussed in terms of the microstructural feature and crystal structure of the deposit.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.215-219
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• 2003

The technology to fix a molten LiCl waste, which would be generated from the process to convert spent fuel to metal, into zeolite and then make a final waste form is doing developed. The XRD results of salt-loaded zeolites with different mixing ratios showed that all zeolites transformed from zeolite A type into Li-A type, or also Sodalite type as a minor phase for some conditions. The optimum LiCl-to-zeolite ratio to bring a minimum free salt was 1.0 when the molten LiCl waste contained Cs and Sr.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.767-772
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• 2012

In support of optimizing electrorefining technology for treating spent nuclear fuel, lithium drawdown has been investigated for separating actinides from molten salt electrolyte. Drawdown reaction selectivity is a major issue that requires investigation, since the goal is to remove actinides while leaving the fission products and other components in the salt. A series of lithium drawdown tests with surrogate fission product chlorides was run to obtain selectivity data with non-radioactive salts, develop a predictive model, and draw conclusions about the viability of using this process with actinide-loaded salt. Results of tests with CsCl, $LaCl_3$, $CeCl_3$, and $NdCl_3$ are reported here. Equilibrium was typically achieved in less than 10 hours of contact between lithium metal and molten salt under well-stirred conditions. Maintaining low oxygen and water impurity concentrations (<10 ppm) in the atmosphere was observed to be critical to minimize side reactions and maintain stable salt compositions. An equilibrium model has been formulated and fit to the experimental data. Good fits to the data were achieved. Based on analysis and results obtained to date, it is concluded that clean separation between minor actinides and lanthanides will be difficult to achieve using lithium drawdown.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.48 no.4
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• pp.997-1001
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• 2016

Conductive ceramics are being developed to replace current Pt anodes in the electrolytic reduction of spent oxide fuels in pyroprocessing. While several conductive ceramics have shown promising electrochemical properties in small-scale experiments, their long-term stabilities have not yet been investigated. In this study, the chemical stability of conductive $La_{0.33}Sr_{0.67}MnO_3$ in $LiCl-Li_2O$ molten salt at $650^{\circ}C$ was investigated to examine its feasibility as an anode material. Dissolution of Sr at the anode surface led to structural collapse, thereby indicating that the lifetime of the $La_{0.33}Sr_{0.67}MnO_3$ anode is limited. The dissolution rate of Sr is likely to be influenced by the local environment around Sr in the perovskite framework.