Carbon anode with repeatable use of LiCl molten salt for electrolytic reduction in pyroprocessing

Carbon was investigated as an anode material for electrolytic reduction in pyroprocessing. UO2 was successfully reduced to U repeatedly using the carbon anode and the LiCl molten salt could be reused. While reusing the molten salt with a carbon anode is difficult under normal conditions (3 V) due to Li2CO3 formation, applying a high voltage (> 10 V) and thus high current with Cl-2 evolution enabled reuse of the LiCl molten salt to keep low Li2CO3 concentration.