A method for monitoring deposition at a solid cathode in an electrorefiner for a two-species system using electrode potentials

Currently, process monitoring of spent nuclear fuel electrorefining relies upon sampling and destructive analysis methods coupled with extrapolative thermodynamic process models for non-interrupted operations. Corrections to those models are performed infrequently, jeopardizing both the control of the process and safeguarding of nuclear material. Furthermore, the timeliness of obtaining the results is inadequate for application of international safeguards protocol. Alternatively, a system that dynamically utilizes electrical data such as electrode potentials and cell current can hypothetically be used to achieve real-time process monitoring and more robust control as well as improved safeguards. Efforts to develop an advanced model of the electrorefiner to date have focused on a forward modeling approach by using feed and salt compositions to determine the product composition, cell current and electrode potential response. Alternatively, an inverse model was developed, and reported here, to predict the product deposition rates on a cathode using the cell current, cathode potential, and fundamental relations of electrochemistry. The model was applied to the following cases: pure uranium deposition, co-deposition of uranium and plutonium, and co-deposition of uranium and zirconium. The deposition rates predicted by the inverse model were compared to those of a forward model, ERAD.