Research progress in pyrochemical reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel

IF 1.7 4区化学 Q3 CHEMISTRY, INORGANIC & NUCLEAR

Transition Metal Chemistry Pub Date : 2025-06-11 DOI:10.1007/s11243-025-00660-8

Jinrui Wang, Pei Wu, Wentao Zhou, Yong Chen, Liudong Hou, Jing Ma

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Abstract

Pyrochemical reprocessing has emerged as a crucial alternative to conventional hydrometallurgical methods for the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel (SNF), particularly for high-burnup SNF from advanced reactors. Unlike the Plutonium Uranium Recovery by Extraction (PUREX) process, which encounters challenges with high-burnup SNF, pyrochemical reprocessing facilitates the direct processing of short-cooled fuel through electroreduction and electrorefining in molten salt. This review presents the research advancements in electroreduction and electrorefining within the context of pyrochemical reprocessing of SNF, systematically introducing the latest findings across five key areas: the electroreduction of oxide SNF pellets composed of various materials, anode materials, solid cathode materials, liquid cathode materials, and molten salt systems utilized in the electroreduction and electrorefining processes. Finally, the article summarizes the pressing issues currently facing electroreduction and electrorefining and proposes directions for future research.

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乏燃料热化学后处理研究进展

热化学后处理已成为传统湿法冶金后处理乏燃料（SNF）的重要替代方法，特别是用于先进反应堆的高燃耗SNF。与面临高燃燃量SNF挑战的PUREX工艺不同，热化学后处理通过熔盐中的电还原和电精炼促进了短冷燃料的直接处理。本文综述了在SNF热化学后处理背景下电还原和电精炼的研究进展，系统地介绍了五个关键领域的最新研究成果：由各种材料组成的氧化SNF球团的电还原，阳极材料，固体阴极材料，液体阴极材料以及在电还原和电精炼过程中使用的熔盐系统。最后，总结了目前电还原和电精炼面临的紧迫问题，并提出了今后的研究方向。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Transition Metal Chemistry 化学-无机化学与核化学

CiteScore

3.60

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

1.3 months

期刊介绍： Transition Metal Chemistry is an international journal designed to deal with all aspects of the subject embodied in the title: the preparation of transition metal-based molecular compounds of all kinds (including complexes of the Group 12 elements), their structural, physical, kinetic, catalytic and biological properties, their use in chemical synthesis as well as their application in the widest context, their role in naturally occurring systems etc. Manuscripts submitted to the journal should be of broad appeal to the readership and for this reason, papers which are confined to more specialised studies such as the measurement of solution phase equilibria or thermal decomposition studies, or papers which include extensive material on f-block elements, or papers dealing with non-molecular materials, will not normally be considered for publication. Work describing new ligands or coordination geometries must provide sufficient evidence for the confident assignment of structural formulae; this will usually take the form of one or more X-ray crystal structures.