RADIOACTIVITY IN ALKALINE LEACH MILLING PROCESSES

Technical Report · Wed May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1963

OSTI ID:4125456

Tame, K E

>A laboratory investigation was made to study radioactive waste disposal problems in carbonate leaching mills. The laboratory procedure consisted of leaching the ground ore at 85 to 90 deg C and 50% solids for 6 hours in a sodium carbonate-- sodium bicarbonate solution. The pulp was filtered to obtain a pregnant solution that was reacted with sodium hydroxide to precipitate the uranium as sodium diuranate. Regeneration of the barren solution was accomplished by gassing with carbon dioxide. The solution then was reused by advancing the solution through the washing to the leaching operations. The radioactivity in the pregnant solution was unusually high, averaging 6,500 disintegrations per minute of radium-226 per liter. However, over 95% of the radium was precipitated with the uranium. Consequently, no buildup of radium occurred upon reuse of the barren solutions for washing. (auth)

• Research Organization: Bureau of Mines. Salt Lake City Metallurgy Research Center
• NSA Number: NSA-18-006881
• OSTI ID: 4125456
• Report Number(s): BM-RI-6346
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-64
• Country of Publication: Country unknown/Code not available
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CHEMISTRY
ACIDITY
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBONATES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
ECONOMICS
EFFICIENCY
FILTERS
GASES
HIGH TEMPERATURE
LEACHING
MIXING
OPERATION
ORE PROCESSING
PERFORMANCE
PRECIPITATION
QUANTITY RATIO
RADIATION DOSES
RADIOACTIVITY
RADIUM 226
RADIUM COMPOUNDS
RECOVERY
SAFETY
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SODIUM CARBONATES
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SODIUM HYDROXIDES
SOLUTIONS
URANATES
URANIUM
USES
WASTE DISPOSAL
WASTE SOLUTIONS
WATER