PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS ON THE REDUCTION OF THE URANYL ION TO URANINITE BY CARBONACEOUS SUBSTANCES

Technical Report · Mon Aug 01 04:00:00 EDT 1955

OSTI ID:4306829

Breger, I A; Moore, R T

An aqueous solution of uranyl sulfate containing a suspension of subbituminous coal has been heated at 210 deg C for three days. Examination of the coal at the end of the experiment showed it to contain 31.8 percent uranium recognizable as uraninite by a sharp, strong x-ray diffraction pattern. A similar experiment with degraded spruce wood also led to the formation of uraninite but in lesser quantity and with broader lines in the x-ray diffraction patarn. The ability of coal or wood to reduce the uranyl ion is a critical factor in the correlation of studies cf uraniferous coals containing the uranyl ion with studies of uraninte-bearing coalfied wood from the Colorado Plateau. Although these results are based on preliminary experiments, they are extremely important geochemically and warrant the development of the series of controlled studies that are proposed. (auth)

• Research Organization: Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.
• NSA Number: NSA-12-017030
• OSTI ID: 4306829
• Report Number(s): TEM-942
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CHEMISTRY
COAL
COLLOIDS
DIFFRACTION
HEATING
REDUCTION
SOLUTIONS
SULFATES
URANYL COMPOUNDS
X RADIATION