Behavior of plutonium and americium at liquid cadmium cathode in molten LiCl–KCl electrolyte

Electrodeposition of metals from non-aqueous solutions

“…Plutonium was successfully collected up to 7.75 wt.% without the disturbance by solid phase formation at the surface. Plutonium formed the intermetallic compound PuCd 6 [115]. Also the electrode reaction of Pu 3+/ Pu couple at the surface of a liquid Cd electrode was investigated at 450, 500 and 550 • C in the LiCl-KCl eutectic melt.…”

Electrochemical and spectrophotometric study on neodymium ions in molten alkali chloride mixtures

“…Separation and transmutation of minor actinides (MA) such as Np, Am and Cm, are examined to minimize the amount of nuclear wastes as well as their long-lived radiotoxicities. Pyrochemical reprocessing using molten salts as a solvating medium has been proposed [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] due to some advantages for treating MAs, e.g., high radiation and proliferation resistances of the process. In a typical pyrochemical reprocessing, spent nuclear fuels are dissolved in a molten salt and fuel materials are separated from fission products (FP) by electrodeposition or reductive extraction.…”

On the formation of U–Al alloys in the molten LiCl–KCl eutectic

“…In this process, uranium is separated from the bulk of fission products by electrolysis in a molten salt electrolyte onto a solid inert cathode. Further developments aim to simultaneously recover U, Pu and the MA by electrorefining onto a liquid Cd cathode [2,3], leaving fission products in the salt phase. The main advantage using Cd is the stabilisation of the reactive actinide metals as An-MA-Cd alloy and that a recovery of actinides in the metallic state for fuel fabrication is possible after a Cd distillation step [4].…”