Progress and Development of Electrorefiner in Dry Reprocessing Process

Abstract

Fast reactor spent fuel with high burnup has the characteristics of high plutonium content, high radioactivity and high heat release rate. The aqueous reprocessing based on solvent extraction principle has the problem of solvent radiolysis. It is better to adopt the dry reprocessing. Dry reprocessing based molten salt electrolysis using irradiation-resistant inorganic salts as media, through electrochemical separation and recovery of actinide, is the most promising dry reprocessing technology. In the process of molten salt electrolytic dry reprocessing, the electrorefining unit is the core link which is responsible for the actinide separation. In this paper, the research and development progress of electrorefiner in the dry reprocessing of spent fuel is investigated, and the key technologies and development trend of electrorefiner are analyzed, which provides a reference for the research and development of fast reactor spent fuel reprocessing in China.

Keywords

• fast reactor spent fuel
• dry reprocessing
• molten salt electrolysis
• electrorefiner