PROCESS DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY REPORT
The performance characteristics of an open anger and an enclosed auger in sampling drums of ore concentrates were determined experimentally. The enclosed auger was found superior in obtaining a proportionate amount of material from the bottom of the drum, obtaining a representative sample of material of variegated particle size, and eliminating the effects of top collapse of free- flowing material. The use of aqueous feed to approach uranium saturation of the organic extract has been studied in the pilot plant. The applicability of an electrostatic precipitator to extract deentrainment has been studied on a pilot- plant scale. A process for solvent treatment with dilute sulfuric acid has been evaluated in the pilot plant. The modified fluid-bed denitrator has produced UO/ sub 3/ with 90% of the material coarser than 100 mesh. Dissolution of uranic oxide in hot sodium bicarbonate solution was shown to be applicable to the determination of urano-aranic oxide in orange oxide. The procedure is superior, with respect to complete recovery of the urano-uranic oxide, to the current hydrochloric acid dissolation method. A close approach to piston flow was demonstrated in the pilot-plant fluid-bed reduction reactor with -40 + 270 mesh UO/sub 3/. The interrelationships between the surface area of green salt, AOI, and the temperature of production were demonstrated. Hanford and British continuous-process U0/sub 3/ were most sensitive to thermal damage, and a flame- process-U0/sub 2-/ derived UF/sub 4/ least sensitive of those samples tested. The effect of thorium impurity on the surface area of UO/sub 3/ previously reported by the National Lead Company of Ohio was confirmed by measurements on production samples. The "long soak" technique for producing low-hydrogen uranim can be improved by removing the hydrogencontaining gas from the interstitial spaces by helium purge. Effective production of metal with less than 2 ppm hydrogen in production dingots, by long-soak techniques, is apparently limited to green salt with less than 50 ppm hydrogen, if current plant heating practices are used. The water content of green salt is apparently related to the humidity in the green salt plant at the time of production. Design and performance data are presented for application of the Bendix time-of-flight mass spectrometer to analysis of multicomponent gas mixtures, reduction (thermite) bomb gases, and hydrogen-bearing gases evolved from heated uranium tetrafluoride and uranium tetrafluoride-magnesium blends. High-speed recordings of temperature distributions within the 3300-lb dingot bomb charge reveal that the propagation of the thermite reaction is nonuniform both in the geometrical advance of the reaction front and in the reaction rate. The direct vacuum casting to ingot shape of the molten product of a 3300-lb dingot bomb appears to be technically feasible, provided that adequate preheat of the molds is supplied to avoid the formation of cold-shuts. Extrusion defects may be avoided with the aid of press scalping; yields are thereby favorably Improved. Dingot heavy-wall tabes can be pierced and extruded in the gararaa tainer guidance. Farther x-ray stadies of end-quenched Jominy bars confirm earlier findings that at high cooling rates there is a strong development of STA100! poles parallel to the direction of heat flow. At intermediate coollng rates pbase --- acceptable concentricity will depend on better container guidance. Farther x-ray stadies of end-quenched less than 100 deg F per second result in nearly random structures. These qualitative conclusions are valid for gammaextraded, alpha-rolled dingot and iron-alloyed dingot uranium, as well as for alpha-rolled ingot metal. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Mallinckrodt Chemical Works. Uranium Div., Weldon Spring, Mo.
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-14-108-ENG-8
- NSA Number:
- NSA-14-001574
- OSTI ID:
- 4214557
- Report Number(s):
- MCW-1433
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-60
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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PROCESS DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY REPORT. PART I--LABORATORY WORK
PROCESS DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY REPORT. PART II. PILOT PLANT WORK
Related Subjects
ANISOTROPY
CASTING
COOLING
DEFECTS
DISTRIBUTION
EXTRUSION
FLUIDIZATION
GASES
GRAIN SIZE
HEAT TREATMENTS
HELIUM
HOT WORKING
HYDROGEN
IMPURITIES
IONIZATION
IRON ALLOYS
MAGNESIUM
MEASURED VALUES
MECHANICAL STRUCTURES
METALS
ORES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE
PLANNING
PRODUCTION
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
QUENCHING
REDUCTION
RODS
ROLLING
SAMPLING
SODIUM CARBONATES
SOLUTIONS
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
SOLVENTS
SPECTROMETERS
SULFURIC ACID
SURFACES
TEMPERATURE
THORIUM
TUBES
URANIUM
URANIUM ALLOYS
URANIUM OXIDES
URANIUM TETRAFLUORIDE
URANIUM TRIOXIDE
USES
VACUUM
WATER
X RADIATION