Enrichment of Fission Products in Ionic Salt Bath by Countercurrent Electromigration

Abstract

We have proposed to apply a countercurrent electromigration method to enrichment of fission products in ionic melts. In the test runs, for this purpose, we have enriched Cs, Sr and Gd from their dilute melts. All of Cs, Sr and Gd were much concentrated at the area near the anode in the migration tubes. Gd and Sr were more concentrated than Cs. It was found that the electromigration method can be applied to the salt bath refleshing process after an electrorefining process, which removes fission products of multivalent cations.

KEYWORDS:

• countercurrent electromigration
• ionic melt
• caesium
• strontium
• gadolinium
• fission products
• isotope separation
• internal mobility
• salt bath
• electrorefining