Dissolution and formation of nuclear materials in molten media*
T. Ogawa** and K. Minato
Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, Tokai-mura,
Naka-gun, Ibaraki-ken, 319-1195 Japan
Abstract: As innovative means to recover actinides from irradiated
fuels, pyrochemical processes are proposed. In the Japan Atomic Energy
Research Institute (JAERI), the feasibility of applying molten-salts
processes to nitride fuels containing transuranium elements for transmutation
is investigated. In the course of study, experiments and analyses have
been made on the high-temperature chemistry of MNCl systems,
the effects of oxygen impurities, and the implications of the divalent
state along with the normal trivalent state of lanthanides and actinides.
Thermodynamic calculation and the electrochemical measurements are compared
in a few aspects of dissolution and precipitation of nuclear materials
in molten halides.
*Lecture presented at the 9th IUPAC International
Symposium on Solubility Phenomena (9th ISSP), Hammamet, Tunisia, 25
–28 July 2000. Other presentations are published
in this issue, pp. 761–844.
**Corresponding author
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