Demonstration of minor actinide recycle with metal fuel - V. Recovery of minor actinides from irradiated metal fuels by pyrometallurgical process - 5172

Metal fast reactor fuel after irradiation will be reprocessed by pyrometallurgical methods such as molten salt electrorefining which uses molten chlorides and liquid metal as solvents, instead of nitric acid and organic solvent in the conventional aqueous process. Electrorefining experiments using metal fuels irradiated at Phenix are underway in METAPHIX-PYRO project conducted in collaboration between CRIEPI and JRC-ITU to establish knowledge on the behavior of actinides and fission products in the pyrometallurgical reprocessing. In this paper, major achievements, findings and current status of the pyrometallurgical studies in the METAPHIX-PYRO project and electroreduction studies using irradiated MOX fuels are overviewed. From the results of these activities, we concluded that feasibility of the actinide recovery from the metal fast reactor fuel adopting the molten salt electrorefining process, as well as introduction of oxide fuels to the metallic fast reactor fuel cycle adopting the electroreduction process, was successfully demonstrated. (authors)