Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology

In case of high contents of rare earths in the LiCl-KCl salt, it is not easy to recover U and TRU metals as a usable resource form from LiCl-KCl eutectic salts generated from the pyroprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. In this study, a conversion of UCl3 into an oxide form using K2CO3 and an electrodeposition of NdCl3 into a metal form in LiCl-KCl-UCl3-NdCl3 system were conducted to resolve the problem. Before conducting the conversion, experimental conditions for the conversion were determined by performing a thermodynamic equilibrium calculation. In this study, almost all of UCl3 disappeared in the LiCl-KCl salt when the injection of K2CO3 reached theoretical equivalent for the conversion, and then NdCl3 was effectively electrodeposited as a metal form using liquid zinc cathode. After that, the LiCl-KCl salt became transparent, and uranium oxides were precipitated to the bottom of the LiCl-KCl salt. These results will be utilized in designing a process to separate U and rare earths in LiCl-KCl salt.

Keywords

Spent nuclear fuel,Pyroprocessing,LiCl-KCl,UCl3,NdCl3,Separation