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AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorsZygmunt Tomczuk, William E. Miller
Estimating the term…
A process for converting PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 present in an electrorefiner to the chlorides, by contacting the PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 with Li metal in the presence of an alkali metal chloride salt substantially free of rare earth and actinide chlorides for a time and at a temperature sufficient to convert the UO.sub.2 and PuO.sub.2 to metals while converting Li metal to Li.sub.2 O. Li.sub.2 O is removed either by reducing with rare earth metals or by providing an oxygen electrode for transporting O.sub.2 out of the electrorefiner and a cathode, and thereafter applying an emf to the electrorefiner electrodes sufficient to cause the Li.sub.2 O to disassociate to O.sub.2 and Li metal but insufficient to decompose the alkali metal chloride salt. The U and Pu and excess lithium are then converted to chlorides by reaction with CdCl.sub.2.
A process for converting PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 values present in an electrorefiner to Pu and U metals, comprising contacting the PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 with Li metal in the presence of an alkali metal chloride salt substantially free of rare earth and actinide chlorides for a time and at a temperature sufficient to reduce the PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 values to the Pu and U metals while converting Li metal to Li.sub.2 O.
A process for converting PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 values present in an electrorefiner to PuCl.sub.3 and UCl.sub.3, comprising contacting the PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 with Li metal in the presence of an alkali metal chloride salt substantially free of rare earth and actinide chlorides for a time and at a temperature sufficient to reduce the PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 values to Pu and U metals while converting Li metal to LiO.sub.2, contacting the LiO.sub.2 values with rare earth metals to reduce the LiO.sub.2 to Li metal while forming rare earth oxides, physically separating the rare earth oxides from the alkali metal chloride salt, and converting the U and Pu metals to PuCl.sub.3 and UCl.sub.3 by reaction with CdCl.sub.2.
A process for converting PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 values present in an electrorefiner to the chlorides, comprising contacting the PuO.sub.2 and UO.sub.2 with Li metal in the presence of an alkali metal chloride salt substantially free of rare earth and actinide chlorides for a time and at a temperature sufficient to convert the UO.sub.2 and PuO.sub.2 to metals while converting Li metal to Li.sub.2 O, providing an oxygen electrode for transporting O.sub.2 out of the electrorefiner and a cathode, applying an emf to the electrorefiner electrodes sufficient to cause the Li.sub.2 O to decompose to O.sub.2 and Li metal but insufficient to decompose the alkali metal chloride salt to remove O.sub.2 from the electrorefiner environment leaving U and Pu and Li metal and converting the U and Pu to chlorides by reaction with CdCl.sub.2.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.