Development of electrowinner and salt regenerator for PRIDE

A scope of this study includes an manufacturing an electrowinning equipment of LCC(Liquid Cadmium Cathode) to recover actinides such as uranium and TRU(Np, Pu, Am, Cm) remained in the molten salt(LiCl-KCl) transferred after an electrorefining process which collects uranium of high purity and an salt regeneration equipment to remove RE(Rare Earth) from the remaining salt after electrowinning process by oxidation and precipitation. The design capacity to recover actinide metals for PRIDE electrowinner was determined to 1 kg/batch and the amount of cadmium and LiCl-KCl eutectic salt were 10 kg and 50 kg, respectively. The equipment was designed based on the operation experiences of lab-scale LCC apparatus but the concepts of remote operation were introduced. PRIDE scale oxidative precipitation precipitation apparatus whose maximum batch size is 20kg-salt/batch was designed and installed. It consists of four parts: oxidation reactor, oxygen sparing unit, flange moving device and crucible unit. To avoid a severe corrosion problem due to a high temperature, oxygen and chloride salt atmosphere, the oxidation reaction is conducted in an 100% Ta crucible. A 3D test was conducted to review the possibility of the remote operation for the equipment and the test results were applied to the design improvement. The mock-up equipment were prepared on the basis of 3D test results and after the test of remote operation, the final equipment for PRIDE were manufactured