Abstract
For molten salt reactors and pyrochemical reprocessing systems, it is vital to monitor the concentration and speciation of U and fission products in the fuel salt as well as the basicity of the salt. We show that NIR spectroscopy allows for better monitoring of actinide and lanthanide fission product concentrations and speciation with greater sensitivity than UV and visible range absorption spectroscopy due to fewer interfering absorption lines, more tractable molar absorption coefficients of transitions present in this range, and less sensitivity to scattering from solid phases suspended in the salt. Additionally, to monitor the basicity of the molten salt mixture, we have explored the use of Pb2+ and Bi2+ as probe ions; shifts in the absorption maxima of their 6s→6p electronic transition are correlated to changes in the Lewis basicity of the molten salt. We show that this optical basicity method is viable in alkali chloride molten salts and may be of use for online monitoring of molten salt chemistry in nuclear molten salt applications.This work was funded by Department of Energy under award DE-EE0009822
Published Version
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