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DOE OSTI · 2212862

First principles optimization of plutonium electrorefining

Zhang, Chao·Parkes, Alistair M.·Holliday, Kiel S.
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Abstract

Herein this work presents a means of controlling plutonium electrorefining at a maximum rate regardless of equipment setup through the derivation of power supply current and potential governing equations for normal and off-normal operations. The governing equations are demonstrated by electrorefining surrogate materials. A simple linear current sweeping method was used to determine the maximum electrorefining current for the surrogate system. This method can be used to develop autonomous process optimization, real-time online processing monitoring, and real-time process endpoint detection. Ultimately, this research provides the foundation to optimize the liquid metal electrorefining rate to decrease the time needed to the physical limit for the process.

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11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS36 MATERIALS SCIENCE38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY

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Zhang, Chao, Parkes, Alistair M., Holliday, Kiel S.. 2023-02-10. First principles optimization of plutonium electrorefining. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnucmat.2023.154327

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