Strontium-90 is a high heat-generating nuclide in spent nuclear fuel. The removal of the nuclide separation is indispensable to reduce the burden of storage and disposal of high-level radioactive waste. Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute has developed the molten salt immersion technique to separate the strontium by the chlorination of the strontium oxide in molten salt. It is needed to separate the salt for the recovery of strontium from the salt solution after the chlorination reaction. In this study, it was investigated on the recovery of the strontium from the salt. Vacuum distillation was used for the separation of strontium from the molten salt. The vapor pressures of the candidate salts were calculated by HSC chemistry and the apparent evaporation rates (AER) were measured at 830°C to evaluate the salts for strontium recovery. The candidate salts were LiCl, KCl, MgCl2, NaCl and CaCl2. The AERs of MgCl2 and NaCl were 1.9 and 1.3 g/cm2-h, respectively. Those two salts can be separated from the strontium compound even though the AER values are much lower than those of LiCl-KCl (~ 8 g/cm2-h). CaCl2 salt was rarely evaporated (AER < 0.03 g/cm2-h) and it is not suitable to use as a strontium recovery salt. Therefore, MgCl2, NaCl, LiCl and KCl can be regarded as candidates for a strontium recovery salt.

• Sang Woon Kwon(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon) Corresponding author
• Sang-Kwon Lee(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)
• Eun-Young Choi(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)
• Chang Hwa Lee(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute, 111, Daedeok-daero 989beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon)