High-throughput Electrorefining System with Graphite Cathodes and a Bucket-type Deposit Retriever

AbstractAn electrorefining is a key element in pyroprocess because uranium, composed of more than 90% spent fuel, is recovered during this step. Therefore, it is one of the important study trends in pyroprocessing for electrorefiner to become high-throughput. To increase the throughput, KAERI applied a graphite cathode, which has a self-scraping characteristic thus the uranium deposit on the graphite electrode falls spontaneously, and a bucket-type deposit retriever, which enables to draw the uranium deposit out continuously. All of these operations were verified with a bucket-type retrieving apparatus, which showed a significant increase of electrorefining throughput