Purification of 238Pu Oxide using the Pu Oxalate Process

Technical Report · Wed Nov 28 00:00:00 EST 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/15005300· OSTI ID:15005300

Mew, D A; Krikorian, O H; Dodson, K E; Schmitz, J A

The Pu oxalate process is used to remove {sup 234}U from aged {sup 238}Pu-enriched PuO{sub 2} ({sup 234}U grows into the PuO{sub 2} material with time from a-decay of {sup 238}Pu). The Pu oxalate process was first used on a mixture of weapons grade PuO{sub 2} with UO{sub 2} to work out the processing parameters. It was then applied to aged {sup 238}Pu-enriched PuO{sub 2} ({sup 238}PuO{sub 2}). The {sup 234}U content of the {sup 238}PuO{sub 2} was reduced from 13.2 wt% to 0.0254 wt%, and the Pu recovery yield was 78.5%. The process is complex and is complicated by radiolysis problems when working with {sup 238}Pu. Details of the experiments are described.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 15005300
• Report Number(s): UCRL-ID-146750; TRN: US200322%%364
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 28 Nov 2001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
MIXTURES
OXALATES
OXIDES
PROCESSING
PURIFICATION
RADIOLYSIS
WEAPONS