Separation behaviors of actinides from rare-earths in molten salt electrorefining using saturated liquid cadmium cathode

Kato, Tetsuya*; Inoue, Tadashi*; Iwai, Takashi; Arai, Yasuo

Journal of Nuclear Materials, 357(1-3), p.105 - 114, 2006/10

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2006.06.003

Electrorefining in the molten LiCl-KCl eutectic salt containing actinides(An) and rare-earths(RE) was conducted to recover up to 10 wt% An into liquid Cd cathode, which is much higher than the solubility of An in liquid Cd at the experimental temperature. In the saturated Cd cathode, An and RE were recovered to form a compound of the PuCd lattice, MCd. The separation factors of RE against Pu were defined as (RE/Pu in the Cd cathode)/(RE/Pu in the salt) and calculated for the saturated Cd alloy including MCd. The separation factors for the Cd cathodes were a little larger than the equilibrium values.