Electrorefiner Speciation and Phase Model for Prediction of Operation Lifetime
The Mk IV electrorefiner (ER) at Idaho National Laboratory has recovered uranium metal from used nuclear fuels for 27 years. Thus, large quantities of fission product chlorides more electropositive than uranium have accumulated in the ER salt, increasing the complexity of phase equilibria and salt speciation. Importantly, the melt temperature of the salt increases with […]
Separation of fission products from high-level waste salt systems by partial crystallization: CsCl-NaCl-LiCl-KCl study
Pyroprocessing refers to a series of high-temperature molten-salt processes used to manage and recycle nuclear materials to reduce the waste volume and hazardous environmental impact of the final waste product. In these processes, fission products with high halide affinity, including cesium (Cs-137) with a half-life of 30 years that decays to barium (Ba-137), are dissolved […]
Applications of Thermochemical Modeling in Molten Salt Reactors
The extensively evaluated and consistent thermodynamic database, the Molten Salt Thermal Properties Database—Thermochemical (MSTDB-TC), was used along with additional thermodynamic values from other sources as examples of ways to examine molten salt reactor (MSR) fuel behavior. Relative stability with respect to halide potential and temperature for likely fuel and fission product components were mapped in […]
Development of a Thermodynamic Database for Corrosion in Chloride MSRs
Control of the salt redox condition is the salient method for corrosion inhibition in molten salts. For chloride salt-fueled molten salt reactors of primary concern is the U(IV)/U(III) ratio, influenced directly by the Cl2 activity in the salt. Although thermodynamic assessments of MSR-relevant salts abound, none have included consideration of UCl4 which is essential to […]