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Electrolytic behavior of SrCl2 and BaCl2 in LiCl molten salt during oxide reduction in pyroprocessing

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Abstract

Ba and Sr elements in spent nuclear fuels are supposed to accumulate in LiCl molten salt electrolyte by forming chlorides (i.e., BaCl2, SrCl2) during oxide reduction in pyroprocessing. An electrochemical examination was performed in a LiCl–BaCl2–SrCl2 system to identify the effect of the BaCl2 and SrCl2 on the C anode-based oxide reduction process. BaCl2 and SrCl2 dissolved in LiCl were electrochemically stable up to 5 wt% with the C anode system, suggesting that no concern for their accumulation is needed in this range in the electrochemical aspect for the process design of the oxide reduction.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korea government (MISP) (2017M2A8A5015077).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 34057, Republic of Korea

    Sung-Wook Kim, Min Ku Jeon & Eun-Young Choi

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  1. Sung-Wook Kim
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  2. Min Ku Jeon
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  3. Eun-Young Choi
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Correspondence to Sung-Wook Kim.

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Kim, SW., Jeon, M.K. & Choi, EY. Electrolytic behavior of SrCl2 and BaCl2 in LiCl molten salt during oxide reduction in pyroprocessing. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 321, 361–365 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-019-06547-0

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