TY - JOUR
T1 - Electrochemical Separation of Alkaline-Earth Elements from Molten Salts Using Liquid Metal Electrodes
AU - Nigl, Thomas P.
AU - Lichtenstein, Timothy
AU - Kong, Yuran
AU - Kim, Hojong
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation (grant number: CMMI-1662817) and the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy’s Nuclear Engineering University Program (Award No. DE-NE0008757).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/10/5
Y1 - 2020/10/5
N2 - Closing the nuclear fuel cycle requires recycling used nuclear fuel. Additional waste is generated during recycling due to fission products accumulating in processing salts (LiCl-KCl). Reducing the waste generated during recycling entails recovering alkaline-earth fission products (Ba2+/Sr2+) from molten chlorides with a minimal loss of bulk electrolyte constituents (Li+/K+). Electrochemical codeposition of Ba2+/Li+ and Sr2+/Li+ into liquid metal (Bi, Sb, Sn, and Pb) and alloy (Bi-Sb) electrodes was investigated in LiCl-KCl-(BaCl2, SrCl2) electrolytes at 500 and 650 °C. For the pure Bi (500 °C) and Sb (650 °C) electrodes, the greatest percentage of charge was used to deposit Ba and Sr. Effective recovery of Ba/Sr by liquid Bi and Sb electrodes is supported via experimentally determined activity values of Ba/Sr in Bi and Sb. Alloying Sb with Bi increased Ba recovery but decreased Sr recovery, compared to the recovery using a liquid Bi electrode. The results suggest that alkaline-earth fission products can be recovered from molten chlorides using liquid metal electrodes via electrochemical separation, thereby providing a method to reduce the generation of nuclear waste from nuclear fuel recycling.
AB - Closing the nuclear fuel cycle requires recycling used nuclear fuel. Additional waste is generated during recycling due to fission products accumulating in processing salts (LiCl-KCl). Reducing the waste generated during recycling entails recovering alkaline-earth fission products (Ba2+/Sr2+) from molten chlorides with a minimal loss of bulk electrolyte constituents (Li+/K+). Electrochemical codeposition of Ba2+/Li+ and Sr2+/Li+ into liquid metal (Bi, Sb, Sn, and Pb) and alloy (Bi-Sb) electrodes was investigated in LiCl-KCl-(BaCl2, SrCl2) electrolytes at 500 and 650 °C. For the pure Bi (500 °C) and Sb (650 °C) electrodes, the greatest percentage of charge was used to deposit Ba and Sr. Effective recovery of Ba/Sr by liquid Bi and Sb electrodes is supported via experimentally determined activity values of Ba/Sr in Bi and Sb. Alloying Sb with Bi increased Ba recovery but decreased Sr recovery, compared to the recovery using a liquid Bi electrode. The results suggest that alkaline-earth fission products can be recovered from molten chlorides using liquid metal electrodes via electrochemical separation, thereby providing a method to reduce the generation of nuclear waste from nuclear fuel recycling.
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U2 - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c04249
DO - 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c04249
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85094929168
VL - 8
SP - 14818
EP - 14824
JO - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
JF - ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
SN - 2168-0485
IS - 39
ER -