Nuclear energy is a clean, low-carbon power source that can generate electricity 24 hours a day, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. New reactor technologies, such as molten salt reactors - which use high-temperature liquid salts instead of water as the primary coolant - have the potential to improve fuel utilization and support more efficient fuel recycling, among other possible benefits, according to a team led by scientists in Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. But more research is needed to understand and manage the fission products present in molten salt reactor and nuclear fuel recycling systems, they said.
Supported by $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), the team will investigate how certain elements - samarium, europium and tellurium - behave in molten salt-based nuclear fuel recycling systems. Known as fission products, the elements are formed when heavy atoms such as uranium split after absorbing a neutron, releasing significant amounts of energy. Collaborators at the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Idaho National Laboratory will characterize and model the behavior of these elements, as well as perform complementary experiments in support of the project.
"We will study the oxidation states of these elements, which describe how many electrons an atom has gained or lost and strongly influence how they behaves chemically," said Hojong Kim, professor of materials science and engineering and principal investigator of the grant. "We will also examine how these elements interact with other materials in nuclear systems and how they behave during nuclear fuel recycling processes known as pyroprocessing."
Alok Pandey, a doctoral student in materials science and engineering, will apply electrical current to the three elements while they are dissolved in a molten salt solvent, studying their behavior under conditions relevant to molten salt reactors and recycling processes.
