Lithium reduction of americium dioxide to generate americium metal
2002; Elsevier BV; Volume: 304; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/s0022-3115(02)00853-x
ISSN1873-4820
AutoresTakamasa Usami, Tetsuya Kato, Masaki Kurata, Tadashi Inoue, H. Sims, S. A. Beetham, J.A. Jenkins,
Tópico(s)Thermodynamic and Structural Properties of Metals and Alloys
ResumoThe lithium reduction process has been developed for application to a pyrochemical recycle process for oxide fuels. This process uses lithium metal as a reductant to convert oxides of actinide elements to metal. Lithium oxide generated as a product of the reduction would be dissolved in a molten lithium chloride bath to enhance reduction. In this work, the reduction of americium dioxide to its metal was experimentally confirmed. At the end of the reduction, more than 99.9% of the Am was recovered from the salt phase to a solid Am phase. It was also shown that the lithium oxide concentration in lithium chloride is required to be kept under 5.1 wt%. When the concentration of lithium oxide was between 5.1 and 6.3 wt%, americium formed monoxide.
Referência(s)