The feasibility of using molten carbonate corrosion for separating a nuclear surrogate for plutonium oxide from silicon carbide inert matrix

Abstract Silicon carbide is one of the prime candidates as a matrix material in inert matrix fuels (IMF) being designed to reduce the plutonium inventories. Since complete fission and transmutation is not practical in a single in-core run, it is necessary to separate the non-transmuted actinide materials from the silicon carbide matrix for recycling. In this work, SiC was corroded in sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and potassium carbonate (K2CO3), to form water soluble sodium or potassium silicate. Separation of the transuranics was achieved by dissolving the SiC corrosion product in boiling water. Ceria (CeO2), which was used as a surrogate for plutonium oxide (PuO2), was not corroded in these molten salt environments. The molten salt depth, which is a distance between the salt/air interface to the upper surface of SiC pellets, significantly affected the rate of corrosion. The corrosion was faster in K2CO3 than in Na2CO3 molten salt at 1050 °C, when the initial molten salt depths were kept the same for both salts.