The process basket assembly is an important module in pyroprocess, because pyroprocess is a batch process, so process materials are contained in a basket assembly and transferred with the basket. The basket assembly is composed of upper and lower assembly. The lower assembly is a basket or crucible which contains process materials, and it can have electrodes. The upper assembly mainly consists of heat shields, a flange, and connectors for supplying currents to electrodes of the lower assembly. During the electrolytic recovery process, the lower part is submerged into molten salt, whose temperature is about 500°C at least and the heat from salt is transferred to the upper assembly. And the heat affects the performance or durability of parts on the top of equipment and can raise cell temperature, which is an undesired situation. In addition, the handling equipment can pick the assembly when it is hottest, and during the transfer, the gripped part is under thermal and mechanical stresses. Because of this, the thermal effects from the heat should be required during equipment design stage. In this study, the thermal analyses of process basket assembly were conducted for 3 cases: the steady state of the basket assembly when it submerged in molten salt, the thermal and mechanical stresses when gripped by remote handling device, and the temperature changes under natural convection. These analyses were performed using Solidworks with flow simulation package, and the results will apply to improve the thermal resistant performance of the basket assembly.

• Jonghui Han(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI)) corresponding author
• Byung Suk Park(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI))
• Seungnam Yu(Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI))