DECLADDING OF CONSOLIDATED EDISON POWER REACTOR FUEL BY SULFEX AND DAREX PROCESSES: CYCLIC DISSOLUTION EXPERIMENTS

Technical Report · Mon Oct 31 04:00:00 EST 1960

OSTI ID:4189020

Ferris, L M

Simulated Consolidated Edison reactor fuel pins (95.5% ere dissolved one- by-one according to the Sulfex and Darex flowsheets in Ni-o-nel and titanium vessels, respectively, 25 pins by each process. With boiling 5 M HNO/sub 3/--2 M HCl (Darex), dissolution of the cladding was complete in each cycle with uranium losses of 0.1--0.4%. Dissolution of the retical density) in boiling 13 M HNO/sub 3/--0.04 M NaF--0.04 M Al(NO/sub 3/)/sub 3/ was also complete in each case. No problems arose from passivation of stainless steel or crosscontamination of solutions. Two modifications of the Sulfex process were tested including decladding with 200% excess of 6 M H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/, and initiating the reaction with 6 M H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ and diluting to 4 M sulfate shortly thereafter. Uranium losses to the decladding solution were generally between 0.2 and 0.5% irrespective of the technique, but were as high as 0.9% in the presence of a ThO/ sub 2/-- U/sub 3/O/sub 8/ heel. The uranium losses were directly related to the amount of heel present. In most cases the fuel pins were passive to boiling 6 M H/sub 2/SO/sub 4/ and reaction was initiated by contacting the pin with a piece of iron. Core dissolution was less efficient than in the Darex tests, presumably because of sulfate contamination. Under the flowsheet conditions only 98 to 99% of the core was dissolved in each cycle. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-14-009549
• OSTI ID: 4189020
• Report Number(s): ORNL-2822
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALUMINUM NITRATES
BOILING
CHEMISTRY
CONTAMINATION
DAREX PROCESS
DENSITY
FUELS
HYDROCHLORIC ACID
IRON
NICKEL ALLOYS
NITRIC ACID
PELLETS
REACTOR CORE
REACTORS
REPROCESSING
SODIUM FLUORIDES
SOLUTIONS
STAINLESS STEELS
SULFATES
SULFEX PROCESS
SULFURIC ACID
THORIUM OXIDES
TITANIUM ALLOYS
URANIUM OXIDES
VESSELS