At the CEA, the first safe, efficient, and reliable liquid-liquid separation systems were developed as a matter of urgency through major test plans at Fontenay-aux-Roses near the Zoe reactor, then at Building 18, and then at Marcoule. Bertrand Goldschmidt, then Claude Fréjacques, were initially in charge of all this and were also the chief engineers. As early as 1972, the need for understanding and predictive models became apparent, leading to the creation of the first joint units with the CNRS. These were tasked with developing the science and techniques needed to bring the back end of the cycle up to the same level of mastery as the reactor cores. This is the story of the methodological and theoretical advances and the attempts at predictive modeling without adjustable parameters –in which Thomas Zemb has been involved since 1972– which are summarized in three acts in this series of videos (in French) recorded at Marcoule in September 2024.
Act I (1972-1988): From the mobility of complex ions in zeolites to supramolecular and colloidal structuring in solvents
Credit: ICSM
Act II (1988-2004): From the discovery of weak aggregates in colloidal dispersion in diluents to the discovery of critical points in quaternary systems, which require the generalization of the law of mass action.
Credit: ICSM
Act III (2004-2024): From the start of the ICSM to colloidal extraction chemistry.
Birth of an interdisciplinary, multi-scale approach to separation chemistry: "ienaics", the science of species transfer between liquid phases, which is just as essential as neutronics and thermal-hydraulics for the development of Generation IV in France and internationally.
Credit: ICSM
