Stability of Structural Ceramic Materials in Liquid Bismuth Cathode

As an alternative way of wet reprocess of spent nuclear fuel, pyroprocessing is known as novel methods of waste processing that has proliferation resistance. One of the critical matters of pyroprocessing is a ceramic crucible that contains the Liquid Bismuth Cathode (LBC) in electrowinning process. The ceramic crucible containing liquid bismuth cathode is chemically unstable and under the thermal fatigue fracture. In order to enhance the stability of ceramic crucible, laser processing which is a common method of the surface treatment is used. The melted ceramic crucible surfaces recrystallize. The surface morphology and cross-section of the treated samples were analyzed using scanning microscopy (SEM) and its wettability was measured by using liquid bismuth cathode on the surface treated ceramic.