PROCESS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ORNL FLUORIDE VOLATILITY PROGRAM, OCTOBER 1962- SEPTEMBER 1963
The Volatility program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the year ending September 1963, is reviewed. The paper was presented September 23, 1963, at the Chemical Technology Division Annual Information Meeting. Volatility processes are also being investigated at Argonne and Brookhaven National Laboratories in the United States, and overseas, at least, in Belgium, France, and Japan. The ORNL effort recently has been primarily devoted to recovering enriched uranium from Zr-- U fuels. The alloy is dissolved in molten salt with HF. The resulting UF/sub 4/ is converted to volatile UF/sub 6/ with F/sub 2/ and further purified by the sorbents NaF and MgF/sub 2/. During the year (1) fully irradiated long- and short-cooled Zr- U fuels were processed in the Volatility Pilot Plant with excellent results; (2) a molten-salt fluoride volatility process for aluminum alloy fuels was developed through the laboratory stage; (3) a heavy emphasis at an engineering scale was placed on a process involving a volatility step for graphite-base fuels; (4) an extensive series of economic evaluations was began in the Engineering Development Department of the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant; (5) the feasibility of hydrofluorinating and fluorinating in the same vessel with recycle of part of the waste salt was investigated from the standpoint of operability and container corrosion; (6) the removal of UF/sub 6/ from a gas stream containing UF/sub 6/ and nitrogen by a single layer of NaF pellets was studied; (7) a gasometer was developed to study the sorption of gasphase fluorides by solids, especially NaF and MgF/sub 2/; (8) mechanisms for the removal of plutonium from LiF-NaF- ZrF/sub 4/ melts containing 1000 ppm plutonium were investigated; and (9) studies to minimize the corrosion of nickel- base alloys in the presence of F/sub 2/ or HF and fluoride melts were continued at ORNL and Battelle Memorial Institute. (auth)
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
- DOE Contract Number:
- %W-7405-ENG-26<
- NSA Number:
- NSA-18-003883
- OSTI ID:
- 4130449
- Report Number(s):
- ORNL-TM-717
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-64
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ADSORPTION
ALUMINUM ALLOYS
CORROSION
ECONOMICS
FLUORIDES
FLUORINATION
FUELS
FUSED SALTS
GRAPHITE
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
IMPURITIES
LITHIUM FLUORIDES
MAGNESIUM FLUORIDES
NICKEL ALLOYS
REACTION KINETICS
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SODIUM FLUORIDES
SOLUTIONS
URANIUM
URANIUM ALLOYS
URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE
URANIUM TETRAFLUORIDE
VESSELS
VOLATILITY
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS
ZIRCONIUM FLUORIDES