We need more papers showing stuff that doesn't work: Extraction of Actinides into Molten Zn Fails to Separate...

...Lanthanides.

Recently I've been thinking about biphasic heat transfer media in nuclear reactors as I write down some ideas for my son.

Poking around for something else, I came across this old paper:

Hirotake Moriyama, Hajimu Yamana, Sataro Nishikawa, Yosuke Miyashita, Kimikazu Moritani, Toshiaki Mitsugashira,
Equilibrium distributions of actinides and lanthanides in molten chloride salt and liquid zinc binary phase system, Journal of Nuclear Materials, Volume 247, 1997, Pages 197-202.

I got down to one of the tables in the paper and noticed that the separation factors were not very different between the actinides and the molten salt (a "FLIBE" type salt) and molten zinc metal.

In other words, this system would not work in a pyroprocessing scheme for used nuclear fuel treatment.

(This is also clear from the abstract.)

It's a negative result.

We need more of this in the scientific literature I think, negative results, statements that "this doesn't work."

It was nice to see.