Front-end and back-end electrochemistry of molten salt in accelerator-driven transmutation systems

Preparation and clean-up processes were developed for the fuel and carrier salt in the Los Alamos Accelerator-Driven Transmutation Technology molten salt nuclear system. The separations will be completed by electrochemical methods (i.e., electrowinning) and focus on the removal of fission product, uranium, and zirconium from spent fuel in the fuel preparation step as applied to the front-end of the fuel cycle. The same method will provide the separation of the so-called noble metal fission products at the back-end of the fuel cycle. Both implementations would have important diversion safeguards. The proposed separation processes, electrochemical separation method, and the thermodynamics of the electrochemical separation method are presented. (author)