Abstract
Uranium chloride salts are a proposed fuel source for molten salt reactors (MSRs). However, despite their relevance to nuclear energy, they remain understudied, in part because of their air and moisture sensitivity. This work provides the first Raman spectra of UCl4 from 45 to 3200 cm−1 collected with 532 and 785 nm excitation sources as well as the assignment of 10 identified peaks to their respective vibrational modes. These Raman bands are compared to those for isostructural ThCl4, the compositionally related UCl3, and the computed Raman bands for UCl4 from local vibrational mode analysis. The observed spectrum of UCl4 is in accord with that of ThCl4 and the computed spectra of UCl4. We posit that the observed differences between the spectra of UCl4 and UCl3 are useful in differentiating these species for applications such as in situ monitoring of MSR operations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 156129 |
| Journal | Journal of Nuclear Materials |
| Volume | 617 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2025 |
Funding
The authors thank TerraPower, LLC for providing the UCl4 for analysis. The authors thank Radiological Control Technicians Josh Baker, J. J. Quinn, and Dustin Summers for their support and are appreciative of helpful discussions with Drs. Alicia Fessler and Hunter B. Andrews. This research was sponsored by the US Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration, Office of Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation Research and Development . This material is based upon work supported by the US Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists, Office of Science Graduate Student Research program . This program is administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education for the US Department of Energy under contract number DE‐SC0014664 .
Keywords
- Anoxic spectroscopy
- Molten salt reactors
- Raman spectroscopy
- Uranium tetrachloride