Selective Separation of Cs and Sr from LiCl-Based Salt for Electrochemical Processing of Oxide Spent Nuclear Fuel

Abstract Electrochemical processing technology is currently being used for the treatment of metallic spent fuel from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II at Idaho National Laboratory. The treatment of oxide-based spent nuclear fuel via electrochemical processing is possible provided there is a front-end oxide reduction step. During this reduction process, certain fission products, including Cs and Sr, partition into the salt phase and form chlorides. Both solid state and molten LiCl-zeolite-A ion exchange tests were conducted for selectively removing Cs and Sr from LiCl-based salt. The solid-state tests produced in excess of 99% removal of Cs and Sr. The molten state tests failed due to phase transformation of the zeolite structure when in contact with the molten LiCl salt.