Ceramic Solidification of Salt-containing Waste from Pyrochemical Reprocessing of Spent Nuclear Fuel

For the future advanced nuclear fuel cycle system, pyrochemical technology based on molten salt electrolysis is generally considered to be one of the most promising and reliable reprocessing technologies. The salt-containing waste generated in each step of the pyrochemical process needs to be converted into a ceramic waste form, which can be stably disposed in a long term manner in deep geological repository. This is of pivotal importance for the scale-up and industrialization of molten salt electrolysis based pyrochemical processing. In this review, the current research progresses of ceramic solidification technology in main nuclear energy countries with respect to salt-containing wastes were summarized and reviewed, with emphasis on ceramic solidifications of salt-containing wastes from electro-reduction process in LiCl-based salt and electro-refining process in LiCl-KCl salt. In addition, future perspectives in this field are also given.