Recycling of Uranium from Uranium-Aluminium alloys by Chlorination with HCl(g)

Abstract Much attention has been paid to the handling of metallic nuclear fuel, which can offer a safe and more secure fuel cycle. To ensure this, it is essential to gain a thorough understanding of the related fundamental processes to scientifically assess the safety aspects. To this aim, a pyrochemical process for the recycling of actinides is being investigated in ITU. It is consisting of anodic dissolution of all actinides to a molten salt bath and electrochemical reduction on solid aluminium cathodes forming actinide-aluminium alloys. For the recovery of the Actinides a chlorination route is proposed consisting of the distillation of the adhered salt, the chlorination of the actinide-aluminium alloys by HCl(g) or Cl2(g) and possibly the sublimation of remaining AlCl3. In this work the chlorination step was studied by chlorinating UAl3 alloys by HCl(g).