Various disposal methods for spent nuclear fuels (SNFs) are being researched, and one of these methods involves separating high heat-generating nuclear isotopes such as Strontium-90 (90Sr) and Cesium-137 (137Cs) for deep disposal. These isotopes has relatively short half-lives and substantial decay energies. Especially, 90Sr undergoes decay through Yttrium-90 to Zirconium-90, emitting intense heat with beta radiation. Therefore, the removal of these high heat-generating isotopes will significantly contribute to reducing disposal site area. To remove 90Sr from SNFs, molten salt was utilized in KAERI. During this process, it was discovered that 90Sr dissolves in the molten salt in the form of SrCl2 and/or Sr4OCl6. Afterwards, it is crucial to recover 90Sr in the form of oxide from the salt to create immobilized forms for disposal. This can be achieved by reactive distillation with K2CO3. However, the amount of 90Sr within the SNFs is only 0.121wt%, and even if all the 90Sr in the SNFs were to leach into the molten salt, the quantity of 90Sr in the molten slat would still be very small. Therefore, adding K2CO3 to the molten salt for reactive distillation could result in significant possibilities of side reactions occurring. In this study, a two-step process was employed to mitigate the side reactions: the 1st step involves evaporating the all molten salts and the 2nd step includes adding K2CO3 to make oxides through solid-solid reaction. Eutectic LiCl-KCl, which is the most commonly used salt, was employed. The eutectic LiCl-KCl with SrCl2 was heated at 850°C for 2 h to evaporate the salts under a vacuum (> 0.02 torr). However, after examining the distillation product before the solid-solid reaction, it was observed that SrCl2 reacted with KCl in the salt, resulting in the formation of KSr2Cl5. It means that salts containing KCl are not suitable candidates for reactive distillation aimed at producing immobilized forms. As an alternative, MgCl2 could be a highly promising candidate because it is inert to SrCl2 and according to a recent study in KAERI, MgCl2 exhibited the most efficient separation of Sr among various salts. Therefore, we plan to proceed with the two-step reactive distillation using MgCl2 for the future work.

The synthesis of a novel first stage GIC containing simultaneously lithium, potassium and barium through a solid–liquid reaction by molten salts method is described. Such a route has been largely developed in our laboratory for intercalation of metals into graphite. The interplanar distance of this quaternary compound reaches 950 pm and exhibits poly-layered intercalated sheets defined by X-ray measurements. The Li0.2K0.75Ba0.6C6 chemical formula of the compound is determined by ion beam analysis and this GIC is remarkably homogeneous. This GIC is the first poly-layered one containing barium.

γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA)-containing salt was prepared by crystallization of a mixture of salt water from deep sea and fermentation broth by lactic acid bacteria that contained GABA converted from glutamic acid. Salt from deep sea water has a lower sodium content but higher calcium, potassium and magnesium contents than commercial salt. Instead of monosodium glutamate (MSG), glutamic acid was used for solving the residual MSG problem. Fermentation by a lactic acid bacterium converted 90% of added glutamic acid (5%, w/v) to GABA, and continuous production of colorless fermentation broth containing more than 3% (w/v) GABA was achieved by using an activated carbon. Mixtures of salt water and fermentation broths with various GABA concentrations were co-crystallized and the GABA content was analyzed. This analysis showed that more than 90% of GABA from broth was adsorbed to salt. The appearance and surface of this prepared GABA-containing salt were examined with an image analyzer and scanning electron microscope. No difference was found with commercial sun-dried salt and no separated particles were detected, which indicates that the co-crystallization process used is suitable for the production of GABAcontaining salt.

사용후핵연료 파이로프로세싱에서 발생하는 방사성폐기물의 양을 최소화하기 위해서는 방사성 핵종 함유 염폐기물을 효과 적으로 처리할 수 있는 기술개발이 필요하다. 이를 위해 탄산화물(Li2CO3, K2CO3)을 이용한 반응증류공정에서 LiCl-KCl 공융 염 내 NdCl3의 분리특성을 관찰하였다. HSC-Chemistry 프로그램을 이용한 탄산화물과 NdCl3의 반응모델결과에서 NdCl3는 탄산화물의 주입조건 및 온도변화에 따라 산염화물(NdOCl) 또는 산화물(Nd2O3) 형태로 전환됨이 확인되었으며, 탄산화물 의 주입조건에 따른 LiCl-KCl-NdCl3계의 반응증류시험에서 반응모델결과와 유사한 경향을 확인하였다. 이 결과들을 이용하 여 LiCl-KCl 공융염 내 NdCl3를 고화가 용이한 산화물 형태로 분리하기 위한 공정조건을 도출하였다.

In the present study, the focus is on the synthesis of titanium carbide/cobalt composite powder by the spray thermal conversion process using metallic salt solution as the raw materials. Two types of oxide powders of Ti-Co-O system were prepared by the spray drying of two types of metallic salt solutions : titanium chloride-cobalt nitrate and powder-cobalt nitrate solutions. These oxide powders were mixed with carbon black, and then these mixtures were carbothermal reduced under a flowing argon atmosphere. The changes in the phase structure and thermal gravity of the mixtures during carbothermal reduction were analysed using XRD and TG-DTA. In the case of using the titanium chloride-cobalt nitrate solution, it could not be obtained TiC/Co composite powder due to contamination of the impurities during the spray drying of the solution. However, in tile case of using the powder-cobalt nitrate scullion, TiC-15 wt. %Co composite powder could be synthesized by the spray thermal conversion process. The synthesized TiC-15 wt. %Co composite powder at 120 for 2 hours has average particle size of 150 nm.

This research deals with carbon dioxide utilization using amino acid salt solution. Energy-efficient CCU (carbon capture and utilization) technology in which no thermal desorption step is required was suggested. Waste concrete was considerd as Ca2+ source. (1.5 M potassium glycinate + 0.15 M piperazine) was used. After solution is saturated with carbon dioxide, 25wt% 100 ml of calcium chloride solution to replace Ca2+ from waste concrete in experiment was added. And then, precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC) was formed. As a result of absorption experiments of (1.5 M potassium glycinate + 0.15 M piperazine), CO2 loading value for the first absorption and reabsorption step was 0.7354 and 0.2848 mol CO2/ mol absorbent, respectively. Also, the yield of PCC formation of (1.5 M potassium glycinate + 0.15 M piperazine) was 43.63%. Based on these data, the amount of CO2 reduction was calculated. Calcium carbonate can be classified into calcite, vaterite, and aragonite according to their crystal structures and morphology. XRD and SEM analysis were performed and the result showed that the morphology of produced PCC salt was vaterite.