Education and Training Series #118: Pyrochemistry for Advanced Nuclear Fuel Cycles: From Spent Fuel Recycling to Molten Salt Reactor Fuels
This webinar is part of a series hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group since 2016.
The link to register to this webinar can be found on this page under "about this webinar".
Who should attend?
Policymakers, industry professionals, regulators, researchers, students, the general public.
About the "GIF Education and Training" Webinars
These webinars, organised by the GIF Education and Training Working Group are streamed live monthly. The recordings and slide decks are accessible after the webinar on this website. These webinars cover a very broad range of technical and policy related topics. Since 2016 and as of 2026 they have been viewed by more than 20000 people (approximately half of the views during the live streams and the other half views being of the archives on the public GIF website). In total, the GIF webinars have reached Generation IV enthusiasts, scientists, engineers and policy makers in more than 90 countries.
These webinars are organised and hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group (ETWG).
Recording and presentation of this webinar will be uploaded on this page following the livestream of the webinar.
About this Webinar
Molten salts have long been investigated as reaction media for high-temperature separation processes for the recovery of actinides from spent nuclear fuel, while in molten salt reactors (MSRs) they become an integral part of the nuclear fuel itself. These apparently different applications are closely linked by the underlying chemistry of actinides in molten chloride and fluoride systems.
This talk will first present research on pyrochemical reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, with emphasis on electrochemical separation and recovery of actinides from metallic fuels in molten salts. The main principles of different pyrochemical separation processes, the properties enabling their selectivity, and their potential applicability to the back end of the MSR fuel cycle will then be discussed.
The presentation will subsequently turn to the front end of the MSR fuel cycle, with particular attention to the synthesis and purification of high-purity actinide chlorides and fluorides. Such materials are required both for generating reliable reference data on the thermochemical and physicochemical properties of MSR fuel candidates and for developing the fundamental chemistry of MSR fuel-salt preparation. Finally, the possible role of MSRs in future plutonium and transuranic management strategies will be considered in the broader context of closing advanced nuclear fuel cycles.
Dr. Patricia Paviet from PNNL, USA, member of GIF ETWG will facilitate this webinar. The GIF ETWG webinar series started in 2016 and more than 100 webinars have been streamed since then. People from more than 80 countries have attended these webinars over the years. You can learn more about previous webinars and ETWG activities on the GIF website.
Meet the presenter and moderator
Dr
Pavel Souček
Dr. Pavel Souček is a Senior Scientist at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Karlsruhe, Germany, with more than 20 years of experience in high-temperature actinide chemistry and molten salt fuel cycle research. His expertise includes pyrochemical reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel, electrochemistry of actinides and lanthanides in molten chloride and fluoride salts, and the chemistry of molten salt reactor fuel cycles.
His earlier research focused particularly on electrorefining and other pyrochemical processes for the recovery and separation of actinides from spent nuclear fuels. Over the past decade, his research has increasingly aimed at the synthesis and purification of high-purity actinide chlorides and fluorides for molten salt reactor applications. This work supports both the preparation of materials for generating reference data on the thermochemical and physicochemical properties of MSR fuel candidates at the JRC Karlsruhe and the development of the fundamental chemistry underlying MSR fuel salt preparation and fabrication. His research also addresses practical challenges related to purity control, handling of radioactive actinide materials and preparation of experimental fuels for irradiation studies. He received his PhD from the Institute of Chemical Technology Prague for research on processes for recycling spent nuclear fuel.
Dr
Patricia PAVIET
Dr. Patricia Paviet was the first chair of the GIF Education and Training Working Group (2015-2024). She now focuses on leading the efforts of the successful GIF Education and Training webinars series and has been doing so since the inception of this initiative in September 2016.
She serves on the GIF MSR pSSC representing the United States since 2021. She joined GIF in November 2015, as chair of the Education and Training Task Force. Outside GIF, Dr. Paviet is the National Technical Director of the Molten Salt Reactor Program for the US Department of Energy, Office of Nuclear Energy. She is managing the research supporting molten salt reactor development across six U.S. national laboratories. She is also a Senior Technical Advisor at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, providing guidance on used nuclear fuel recycling. She has an extensive technical background on the nuclear fuel cycle (front and back end).