Zirconium and hafnium separation with molten salt extraction in Sn–Cu–Zr–Hf and Cu–Zr–Hf alloy systems

L. Xu, Y. Xiao*, A. van Sandwijk, Z. Zhao, J. Li, Q. Xu, Y. Yang

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    5 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Chemical-grade zirconium contains about 1–3 wt% hafnium, which is harmful for nuclear applications due to its high neutron-capture cross section. In the present paper, Zr-Hf separation in Sn-Cu-Zr-Hf and Cu-Zr-Hf alloy systems using molten salt containing CuCl2 or CuF2 was thermodynamically evaluated and lab-scale experiments on zirconium and hafnium separation in different molten salt systems were conducted. The best single-step Hf removal efficiency and Zr-Hf separation factor of about 95% and 9.0, respectively, were obtained with a NaCl-CaCl2-CuCl2 (3 wt%) molten salt system at 850°C and the CuCl2/Hf stoichiometric ratio of 1.5.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1664-1674
    JournalSeparation Science and Technology (Philadelphia)
    Volume51
    Issue number10
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Keywords

    • Hafnium removal
    • molten salt extraction
    • nuclear-grade zirconium
    • Zr-Hf separation

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