Nuclear Engineering and Technology

Korean Nuclear Society (한국원자력학회)
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Molybdenum release from high burnup spent nuclear fuel at alkaline and hyperalkaline pH

  • Sonia Garcia-Gomez (Department of Chemical Engineering, EEBE and Barcelona Research Center in Multiscale Science and Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)) ;
  • Javier Gimenez (Department of Chemical Engineering, EEBE and Barcelona Research Center in Multiscale Science and Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)) ;
  • Ignasi Casas (Department of Chemical Engineering, EEBE and Barcelona Research Center in Multiscale Science and Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)) ;
  • Jordi Llorca (Department of Chemical Engineering, EEBE and Barcelona Research Center in Multiscale Science and Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)) ;
  • Joan De Pablo (Department of Chemical Engineering, EEBE and Barcelona Research Center in Multiscale Science and Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC)) ;
  • Albert Martinez-Torrents (EURECAT, Centre Tecnologic de Catalunya) ;
  • Frederic Clarens (EURECAT, Centre Tecnologic de Catalunya) ;
  • Jakub Kokinda (EURECAT, Centre Tecnologic de Catalunya) ;
  • Luis Iglesias (EURECAT, Centre Tecnologic de Catalunya) ;
  • Daniel Serrano-Purroy (European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC))
  • Received : 2023.04.25
  • Accepted : 2023.08.14
  • Published : 2024.01.25
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Abstract

This work presents experimental data and modelling of the release of Mo from high-burnup spent nuclear fuel (63 MWd/kgU) at two different pH values, 8.4 and 13.2 in air. The release of Mo from SF to the solution is around two orders of magnitude higher at pH = 13.2 than at pH = 8.4. The high Mo release at high pH would indicate that Mo would not be congruently released with uranium and would have an important contribution to the Instant Release Fraction, with a value of 5.3%. Parallel experiments with pure non irradiated Mo(s) and XPS determinations indicated that the faster dissolution at pH = 13.2 could be the consequence of the higher releases from metallic Mo in the fuel through a surface complexation mechanism promoted by the OH- and the oxidation of the metal to Mo(VI) via the formation of intermediate Mo(IV) and Mo(V) species.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work has been financially supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain) with the project PID2020-116839RB-I00 and ENRESA (Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radioactivos de Espana) under CO-IA-22-010 and ENRESA/JRC/Eurecat 33924 agreement. Finantial support is also acknowledged to The Agency for Business Competitiveness (ACCIO) and the European Union's European Atomic Energy Community's (Euratom) Horizon 2020 Reasearch and Training Programme (H2020-NFRP-2016-2017-1), section B - Contribute to the Development of Solutions for the Management of Radioactive Waste, topic NFRP 6: Addressing key priority R&I issues for the first-of-the-kind geological repositories under grant agreement n° 755443 (Modern Spent Fuel Dissolution and Chemistry in Failed Container Conditions, DisCo project). S. G.-G. wants to acknowledge the fellowship with reference code PRE2018-085618 and J.L. is a Serra Hunter Fellow and is grateful to the ICREA Academia program.

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