METHOD FOR EXTRACTING ZIRCONIUM FROM IRRADIATED ZIRCONIUM MATERIALS TO REDUCE VOLUME OF HIGH-LEVEL RADIOACTIVE WASTE Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC C22B7/00 C22B34/14 G21F9/28 C01G25/00 

FIELD: radioactive waste treatment.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to methods for processing zirconium radioactive waste and can be used to isolate low and medium active zirconium from highly active irradiated zirconium materials. The method includes loading fragmented material into an anode basket made of refractory materials of molybdenum, tungsten, nickel, stainless steel or ceramics, placing the anode basket and cathode in a crucible with a melt of Li, K, Na chloride salts containing a ZrCl₄ additive in the range of up to 6 wt.%, and electrorefining of said material. In this case, electrorefining is carried out in a galvanostatic mode with periods to replace the cathode with a metal deposit, followed by its purification from the captured electrolyte salt. Purification is carried out by distillation at a temperature of 500-1200°C in vacuum or by hydrometallurgical washing of sediment. 2 wt.% CsCl is added to the electrolyte as a melt component and electrorefining is carried out in the NaCl-2CsCl, NaCl-KCl-CsCl or LiCl-KCl-CsCl melt, and an anode sludge collector is placed at the bottom of the crucible.

EFFECT: increase in the extraction of zirconium purified from highly active zirconium activation products and reduction in the volume and amount of waste.

2 cl, 6 dwg, 2 tbl, 1 ex