Zirconium(Zr) nuclear fuel cladding tubes are made using a three-time pilgering and annealing process. In order to remove the oxidized layer and impurities on the surface of the tube, a pickling process is required. Zr is dissolved in HF and HNO3 mixed acid during the process and pickling waste acid, including dissolved Zr, is totally discarded after being neutralized. In this study, the waste acid was recycled by adding BaF2, which reacted with the Zr ion involved in the waste acid; Ba2ZrF8 was subsequently precipitated due to its low solubility in water. It is very difficult to extract zirconium from the as-recovered Ba2ZrF8 because its melting temperature is 1031 oC. Hence, we tried to recover Zr using an electrowinning process with a low temperature molten salt compound that was fabricated by adding ZrF4 to Ba2ZrF8 to decrease the melting point. Change of the Zr redox potential was observed using cyclic voltammetry; the voltage change of the cell was observed by polarization and chronopotentiometry. The structure of the electrodeposited Zr was analyzed and the electrodeposition characteristics were also evaluated.

This study aims to investigate the effects of ankle foot orthosis(AFO) on the activities of tibialis anterior(TA), soleus(Sol), rectus femoris(RF) and biceps femoris(BF) during stairs descending. The activities of TA, Sol, RF and BF were initially measured while descending 4 stairs without using AFO. The activities of the same muscles were then measured again while descending 4 stairs while using AFO. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to analyze the results in order to examine the differences between the with using AFO and without using AFO. Although the activities of TA, Sol and RF were relatively lower while using AFO than without using AFO, only the differences in Sol and RF activities were significant(p<0.05). The activity of BF was relatively higher while using AFO compared to the activity of BF observed without using AFO. However, difference was not significant(p>0.05). Conclusion of this study was observed since AFO’s ground reaction force absorption during stairs descending reduced the need to use So and RF that is related to shock absorption. BF activity was increased with AFO than without during standing forward to correct the trunk stability.