CHEMICAL TECHNOLOGY DIVISION, CHEMICAL DEVELOPMENT SECTION C PROGRESS REPORT FOR OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 1960
Studies are being made on the reoovery of thorium (and uranium) from granitic rock. In preliminary leaching studies on 16 granite samples (containing 8 to 95 ppm thorium and 1.5 to 16 ppm uranium), maximum recoveries of thorium and uranium ranged from 30 to 55% and 15 to 65%, respectively, and sulfuric acid consumption was high (30 to 120 lbs H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ per ton of granite). A relatively high acidity was needed to obtain rapid and efficient dissolution of the soluble thorium fraction. Estimated costs per pound of thorium plus uranium recovered ranged from to 500. U/FP separation factors, previously observed to increase with decreasing TBP concentrations in Amsco 125-52, were found to imcrease more markedly with TBP in Solvesso-100 and DSBPP in Solvesso-100, at least from 1.35M down to 0.7M. The alkaline permanganate and the alkaline alumina solvent treatment methods were comaared in their ability to clean up at lM TBP solution in Amsco 125-52 which was exposed to radiation in the presence of nitric acid and scrubbed with sodium carbonate to remove low molecular weight acids. Both solids, the alumina and the manganese dioxide formed durirg treatment, showed similar sorption patterns for the remaining degradation products. Impurities causing 50 to 60% of the Zr-Nb extraction power of the degraded solvent were easily sorbed whereas removal of another fraction causing 20 to 25% of the extraction required further relatively large additions of solid. Even at the highest solids levels used, the solvent retained 20 to 25% of its extraction power. Cleanup equivalent to that obtained with alumina was achieved with -20 times less manganese dioxide. The proposed three-cycle process for extraction of strontium and rare earths from Purex waste using di(2ethylhexyl)- phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) was run with nonradioactive solutions in miniature mixer- settler equipment in order to test equipment and chemical flowsheet prior to hot cell experiments that will use high activity level Purex waste as fesd. A preliminary study of the diffusion of uranium in acidic aqueous sulfate solutions indicated that the diffusivity of the uranyl ion is about ten times that of either the monosulfate complex or the disulfate complex, in reasonable agreement with the factor of six derived from measurements of the extraction kinetics with similar aqueous systsms. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
- NSA Number:
- NSA-15-012992
- OSTI ID:
- 4069854
- Report Number(s):
- CF-60-11-126
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-61
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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