Near Infrared Spectroscopy of Fission Products in Alkali Chloride Molten Salt – Structural Interpretation and Analytical Use

Advanced nuclear technologies using high-temperature molten salts are poised to increase the efficiency, flexibility, and acceptability of nuclear energy. To realize these advances, additional understanding of the chemistry and thermochemical and thermophysical properties of the molten salt mixtures is required. Additionally, methods to rapidly and non-destructively monitor and determine the concentration and chemistry of actinides and fission products must be developed. Electronic and vibrational spectroscopy are promising methods to both interpret the structure and speciation of dissolved species in molten salts and to determine concentrations of species of interest. We have determined the molar absorbance coefficients of selected absorbance features for several lanthanides of interest in the ultraviolet, visible, and near infrared ranges and show that some NIR absorbance features, which were previously neglected as a means of concentration determination, are analytically useful. In fact, these NIR absorbance features may have advantages over UV and visible range features for concentration determination in industrial systems. Additionally, we will present our analysis of the effects of the coordination environment on lanthanide electronic structure and transitions, yielding insight into the chemistry and coordination of these elements in molten alkali halide mixtures, which is crucial for understanding the corrosion issues in these salts amongst other requirements. Acknowledgement: This research is being performed using funding received from the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy's Nuclear Energy University Programs under award DE-NE0008889 and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC) under contract 31310018M0032. Dr. Kenny Osborne and Ms. Nancy Hebron-Isreal serve as the program managers for the DOE and NRC awards, respectively. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE-1447692. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, or the United States Government.