Chemical form of actinide elements contained in anode residue generated in electrolysis and the conversion to chlorides using ZrCl

Kitawaki, Shinichi ; Nakayoshi, Akira  ; Fukushima, Mineo; Yahagi, Noboru*; Kurata, Masaki* 

Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) and Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI) are conducting joint research on Pyro-metallurgical processing at the Chemical Processing Facility (CPF) of JAEA-Tokai Research and Development Center. In this process, various residues would be generated under practical operating conditions. For instance, the precipitation generated by reacting actinides with a small quantity of oxygen/moisture in electrolysis vessel, the anode residue, and the dross generated in cathode processing step. On the other hand, it has been reported that the actinides can be recovered into salt by converting to the chloride using ZrCl. The chemical form of anode residue generated from electrolysis test was analyzed and converted to chloride using ZrCl to evaluate the applicability to practical process of conversion method.