Development of an electrochemical reduction process in ACPF

In KAERI, an electrochemical reduction process has been developed to treat oxide spent fuels under a pyrochemical concept. The reduction takes place in a molten salt medium using an electric power. An electro-reducer in the ACPF was improved recently and SIMFIEL was used to investigate its reduction behavior. Electrochemical reduction runs were carried out at a 10 Kg SIMFUEL/batch scale at 650 .deg. C in the ACPF. During the reduction, Li2O concentration was decreased with the applied current and alkali and alkaline-earth metal elements had accumulated in the molten salt. The reduced metal exhibited more than 99% reduction yields with respect to their positions MgO basket