Determination of uranium and rare-earth metals separation coefficients in LiCl–KCl melt by electrochemical transient techniques

The main step in the pyrometallurgical process of spent nuclear fuel recycling is a molten salt electrorefining. The knowledge of separation coefficients of actinides (U, Np, Pu and Am) and rare-earth metals (Y, La, Ce, Nd and Gd) is very important for this step. Usually the separation coefficients are evaluated from the formal standard potentials of metals in melts containing their own ions, values obtained by potentiometric method. Electrochemical experiments were carried out at 723–823 K in order to estimate separation coefficients in LiCl–KCl eutectic melt containing uranium and lanthanum trichlorides. It was shown that for the calculation of uranium and lanthanum separation coefficients it is necessary to determine the voltammetric peak potentials of U(III) and La(III), their concentration in the melt and the kinetic parameters relating to U(III) discharge such as transfer and diffusion coefficients, and standard rate constants of charge transfer.