Actinide removal from spent salts

A method for removing actinides from a spent salt of a molten salt reactor, comprising:

• dissolving the salt in water to form a salt solution;
• precipitating out the actinides to form a first precipitate by adding a first reducing agent including a metal hydroxide to the salt solution;
• removing the first precipitate from the salt solution to form an initial filtered salt solution;
• adding a second reagent to the initial filtered salt solution after removing the first precipitate to form a second precipitate;
• removing the second precipitate from the initial filtered salt solution to form a final filtered salt solution, wherein the first precipitate includes thorium oxide and the second precipitate includes uranium oxide;
• and
• passing the final filtered salt solution through an ion exchange column after removing the second precipitate to further remove actinides remaining in the final filtered salt solution.

A method for removing actinides from a spent salt of a molten salt reactor, wherein the spent salt contains less than 20% by weight carbonate, comprising the following steps:

• dissolving the salt in water to form a salt solution;
• precipitating out the actinides to form a first precipitate by adding a first reducing agent including a metal hydroxide to the salt solution;
• removing the first precipitate from the salt solution to form an initial filtered salt solution;
• precipitating out a second precipitate of the actinides by adding a second reducing agent to the initial filtered salt solution;
• removing the second precipitate from the initial filtered salt solution to form a final filtered salt solution;
• and
• passing the final filtered salt solution through an ion exchange column after removing the second precipitate to further remove actinides remaining in the final filtered salt solution.