About this Abstract |
| Meeting |
2026 TMS Annual Meeting & Exhibition
|
| Symposium
|
Materials and Chemistry for Molten Salt Systems
|
| Presentation Title |
High Efficiency Recovery of MgCl<sub>2</sub> From Molten LiCl-KCl via Galvanic Drawdown Using a Gadolinium Metal Anode |
| Author(s) |
Mario Alberto Gonzalez, Michael Forrest Simpson |
| On-Site Speaker (Planned) |
Mario Alberto Gonzalez |
| Abstract Scope |
Drawdown can be used for actinide recovery from molten salts used in nuclear fuel electrorefiners, enabling disposal of actinide-free waste. A newly reported drawdown method is based on galvanic coupling in which a metal such as gadolinium oxidizes and drives reduction of the actinide species. Galvanically coupled gadolinium and stainless steel were used to reduce MgCl<sub>2</sub> to magnesium metal (surrogate for plutonium) in eutectic LiCl–KCl at 500 °C, initially containing up to 2.7 wt% MgCl<sub>2</sub>. A potentiostat in zero-resistance ammeter mode recorded the galvanic current and mixed metal potential relative to a Ag/AgCl reference electrode. Magnesium metal formed both electrochemically through the galvanic couple and chemically via direct reaction of MgCl<sub>2</sub> with the gadolinium rod. The effect of increasing GdCl<sub>3</sub> concentration on the extent of magnesium removal was investigated. The MgCl<sub>2</sub> concentration was reduced to below 0.5 wt% with the GdCl<sub>3</sub> concentration up to 1.3 wt%. |
| Proceedings Inclusion? |
Planned: |
| Keywords |
Electrometallurgy, Pyrometallurgy, Nuclear Materials |