RESULTS OF VOLATILITY PILOT PLANT COLD URANIUM FLOWSHEET DEMONSTRATION RUN TU-1

Technical Report · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1964

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4125421· OSTI ID:4125421

Moncrief, E. C.

A two-element dissolution of 50.89 kg of Zr-U alloy fuel element with 92 g/min of anhydrous HF in NaF- LiF-ZrF/sub 4/ fused salt at 490 to 670 deg C was made with the fuel element 113% submerged. Initial and final ZrF/sub 4/ contents in the equimolar NaF- LiF fused salt were 25.1 and 40.3 mole%, respectively. Fluorination of the dissolver salt was accomplished with 12 SLM fluorine flow at 500 to 505 deg C. The sorption-desoxption cycle of UF/sub 6/ on NaF was accomplished at 100 and 100 to 400 deg C, respectively, in two fixed-bed absorbers. Product UF/sub 6/ was collected in a cold trap. A complete uranium material balance over the run was not made. However, nonrecoverable uranium losses for the run were only 0.362 g. Product impurity level was <1421 ppmn total cations based on UF/sub 6/ with Na at 1300 ppm being the major impurity. A fuel dissolution rate of 2.52 kg/hr was obtained with an over-all HF utilization of 35.2%. Fluorine utilization was 5.7% for 99.90% conversion of the UF/sub 4/ to UF/sub 6/. Final salt U content was 1.2 ppm. Fluoride salt recovery was 100.5%. The generation of approximates 300 g of off-gas solids occurred during dissolution. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-18-006885
• OSTI ID: 4125421
• Report Number(s): ORNL-TM-752
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ADSORPTION
CATIONS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMISTRY
EFFICIENCY
EXTRACTION COLUMNS
FLUORINATION
FLUORINE
FUEL ELEMENTS
FUSED SALTS
GAS FLOW
GASES
HIGH TEMPERATURE
HUMIDITY
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
IMPURITIES
LITHIUM FLUORIDES
LOSSES
LOW TEMPERATURE
MIXING
OPERATION
PERFORMANCE
PRODUCTION
QUANTITY RATIO
REACTION KINETICS
RECOVERY
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SODIUM FLUORIDES
SOLUTIONS
TESTING
TRACE AMOUNTS
TRAPS
URANIUM ALLOYS
URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE
URANIUM TETRAFLUORIDE
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS
ZIRCONIUM FLUORIDES