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An Assessment of Continued R & D into an Electrometallurgical Approach for Treating DOE Spent Nuclear Fuel (1995) / Chapter Skim
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2 ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY'S ELECTROMETALLURGICAL TECHNOLOGY
Pages 17-24

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From page 17...
... The heart of the process is the electrorefining step, which employs a metallic feed, molten alkali metal salts as the reaction medium, and two cathodes, one steel and the other an immiscible pool of molten cadmium, to separate actinides from fission products and other nuclear reactor fuel materials. This separation process may be of value in the treatment of some DOE SNFs, particularly for reactive metallic fuels that are not expected to be amenable to geologic disposal in their present form.
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From page 18...
... The unique aspect of Me process is Me direct production of solid uranium metal, which can be separated from Me molten salt. To date, this separation of solid uranium particles from the molten salt of LiCI-Li2O has been done only on a 20-kg scale, by sieving with metal screens.
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From page 19...
... The TRUs and fission products would simply be left in the salt for later immobilization in the zeolite waste form. The noble metal fission products and cladding hulls would remain in the anode basket.
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From page 20...
... + Cd The final distribution of uranium, TRUs, and fission products among the three electrodes depends on the concentration of UCi3 in Me salt. The spent fuel feedstock would be treated with sufficient UCi3 or CdCI2 to produce a uranium chloride concentration in the KCI-LiC!
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From page 21...
... Thus, uranium would be deposited on the steel cathode, while the transuranic elements, rare earths, alkaline earths, and alkali metals would remain in the salt phase. While "textbook standard" free energies of fo'~ation are helpful in predicting behavior in electrorefin~ng, such estimates are only approximate.
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From page 22...
... . A metallic stream, remaining at the anode in the dissolver basket, that would contain cladding hulls and noble metal fission products.
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From page 23...
... If NaCI were allowed to build up, He melting point of the molten salt reaction medium would increase. When the zeolite had become nearly saturated with rare-earth fission products, it would be mixed wig additional anhydrous zeolite and a glass binder and consolidated into a proposed final waste form.
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From page 24...
... A high-throughput electrorefiner (200 kg heavy me~avaay', currenny wing aeve~opect at AN~-tast, wtii be used to process about 16 metric tons of EBR-II blanket fuel in the FCF. The EBRII campaign should demonstrate the applicability or nonapplicability of the electrometallurgical process to the production-scale treatment of irradiated metallic filers.
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Key Terms

  • spent fuel
  • geologic disposal
  • electrometallurgical process
  • uranium metal
  • spent nuclear

  • fission products
  • interim storage
  • doe snf
  • treating doe
  • oxide reduction

  • reactive metal
  • metallic stream
  • alkali metal
  • effluent streams
  • dissolver basket

  • salt stream
  • waste form
  • separation process
  • reactor fuel
  • stream containing

  • cadmium cathode
  • pure uranium
  • light water
  • metal fission
  • cladding hulls

  • fuel types
  • zeolite waste
  • contain cladding
  • metric ton
  • molten salt


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