TITLE:
Zirconium Metal Recovery from Zircaloy in Molten Fluorides
AUTHORS:
Laurent Massot, Mathieu Gibilaro, Delphine Quaranta, Jerome Serp, Pierre Chamelot
KEYWORDS:
Molten Fluorides, Zirconium, Zircaloy-4, Electrorefining, Dissolution Pathway
JOURNAL NAME:
Materials Sciences and Applications,
Vol.15 No.12,
December
31,
2024
ABSTRACT: This article focuses on the electrorefining process in molten fluorides to selectively recover zirconium from one Zr-based metallic alloy involved in the field of nuclear energy: Zircaloy-4. Firstly, zirconium electrodeposition was investigated in molten LiF-NaF at 750˚C in order to determine appropriate operating conditions to ensure Zr metal recovery: concentration and applied current density. Then, anodic behaviour of Zircaloy-4 was studied and compared to its composing elements. These results allowed us to define an adapted electrorefining strategy. Electrorefining progress, anodic and cathodic faradic efficiencies were evaluated by materials characterization obtained after galvanostatic electrolyses.