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Carbon anode with repeatable use of LiCl molten salt for electrolytic reduction in pyroprocessing

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Abstract

Carbon was investigated as an anode material for electrolytic reduction in pyroprocessing. UO2 was successfully reduced to U repeatedly using the carbon anode and the LiCl molten salt could be reused. While reusing the molten salt with a carbon anode is difficult under normal conditions (~3 V) due to Li2CO3 formation, applying a high voltage (>10 V) and thus high current with Cl2 evolution enabled reuse of the LiCl molten salt to keep low Li2CO3 concentration.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MISP) (2012M2A8A5025697).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Fuel Cycle Process Development Group, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 989-111 Daedeok-daero, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, 34057, Republic of Korea

    Sung-Wook Kim, Min Ku Jeon, Hyun Woo Kang, Sang-Kwon Lee, Eun-Young Choi, Wooshin Park, Sun-Seok Hong, Seung-Chul Oh & **-Mok Hur

  2. Department of Quantum Energy Chemical Engineering, University of Science and Technology, 217 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-Gu, Daejeon, 34113, Republic of Korea

    Sung-Wook Kim & Min Ku Jeon

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  1. Sung-Wook Kim
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  2. Min Ku Jeon
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  3. Hyun Woo Kang
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  4. Sang-Kwon Lee
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Correspondence to Sung-Wook Kim.

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Kim, SW., Jeon, M.K., Kang, H.W. et al. Carbon anode with repeatable use of LiCl molten salt for electrolytic reduction in pyroprocessing. J Radioanal Nucl Chem 310, 463–467 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-016-4786-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10967-016-4786-5

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