EQUILIBRIUM DISTRIBUTIONS OF ACTINIDES AND LANTHANIDES IN MOLTEN-SALTAND LIQUID-METAL BINARY PHASE SYSTEMS

In support of the development of a pyrochemical group partitioning pro cess of actinides and lanthanides, the equilibrium distributions of th ese elements were measured in some binary phase systems of molten salt and liquid metal. LiF-BeF2 mixture was selected as the salt phase, an d Bi, Sn, Cd and Zn were examined as tile metal phase. In general, act inides were more easily reduced and extracted from the salt phase into the metal phase than lanthanides. The group partitioning is thus feas ible. In different partitioning systems, systematic difference in the separation factor between actinides and lanthanides was observed. The difference is attributable to the difference in alloying energies in t he metal phase.