The presence of group I/II fission products (Cs-137, Sr-90, and Ba-137) within molten salt nuclear processes degrades operational efficiencies by contributing to increased radiation levels in the case of material handling processes or to loss of criticality in the case of a reactor. While methods such as zone freezing and ion exchange have been proven for the separation of these fission products in LiCl-KCl salts, they require extra equipment and processing steps. Addition of a liquid metal electrode to molten salt media, such as the electrorefiner of a pyroprocessing scheme or the salt cleaning stage of a molten salt fast reactor, offers the possibility to selectively extract group I/II fission products with minimal extra equipment. This work has studied the fundamental electrochemical behaviors of Cs, Sr, Ba, and Ce in LiCl-KCl at a liquid Bi cathode and produced values for their mass transport and kinetics properties. These have allowed for an assessment of a Bi cathode for electrochemical separations in a pyrochemical processing scheme.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-7206 |
| Date | 01 January 2019 |
| Creators | Woods, Michael |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © Michael Woods |
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