Recovery of actinides from actinide-aluminium alloys by chlorination: Part II

A chlorination route is being investigated for recovery of actinides from actinide-aluminium alloys, which originate from pyrochemical recovery of actinides from spent metallic nuclear fuel by electrochemical methods in molten LiCl-KCl. In the present work, the most important steps of this route were experimentally tested using U-Pu-Al alloy prepared by electrodeposition of U and Pu on solid aluminium plate electrodes. The investigated processes were vacuum distillation for removal of the salt adhered on the electrode, chlorination of the alloy by chlorine gas and sublimation of the AlCl3 formed. The processes parameters were set on the base of a previous thermochemical study and an experimental work using pure UAl3 alloy. The present experimental results indicated high efficiency of salt distillation and chlorination steps, while the sublimation step should be further optimised.