Analysis and modeling of the equilibrium behaviors of U and Pu in molten LiCl-KCl/Cd system at 500 °C

Abstract In the field of pyroprocessing of used nuclear fuels, liquid cadmium is applied in different ways to recover transuranics from molten salt, while effecting some degree of separations between transuranics and lanthanides. A model of the separation performance between uranium and plutonium across the phase boundary between molten salt and liquid cadmium is presented. The salt is the LiCl-KCl eutectic with solute concentrations of UCl3 and PuCl3. The cadmium is the liquid cadmium phase field from the Cd-U-Pu ternary alloy system. The model used to describe the behavior of uranium and plutonium in the salt/cadmium system is applied to describe the behavior of plutonium and lanthanide in the salt/cadmium system.