A short tutorial on uranium electropolishing

Technical Report · Wed Apr 15 04:00:00 EDT 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1615644· OSTI ID:1615644

Schulze, Roland K. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Electropolishing of uranium metal is best performed in a simple aqueous solution of phosphoric acid. With +3 to +10 volts of bias potential applied to the uranium (anode) relative to a Pt counter electrode (cathode). As summarized in a Pourbaix stability diagram, these conditions yield dissolution of the U surface as UOX containing solution species without the possibility of injecting hydrogen into the metal surface. However, if the uranium is biased to negative potentials relative to the counter electrode then water may be reduced at the U surface and hydrogen gas becomes available for reaction with the U metal. The stability diagram may be modified if there are other complexing species present in solution and the potential scale shifted if a different metal is use for the counter electrode. These effects can be understood in a known way as long as solution and electrochemical cell conditions are recognized.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 1615644
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--20-22929
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

38 RADIATION CHEMISTRY, RADIOCHEMISTRY, AND NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
uranium electropolish