ANALYTICAL PROGRAM FOR PROCESSING ZIRCONIUM-URANIUM REACTOR FUEL ELEMENTS

Technical Report · Thu Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 1957

OSTI ID:4330907

Rein, J E; Shank, R C

Fuel elements fabricated with zirconium as the alloying material are rapidly gaining in popularity. Recently, a high zirconium content, enriched uranium fuel was processed in the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant for recovery of the unfissioned uranium. The process was based on dissolution in hydrofluoric acid, oxidation of uranium(IV) to uranium(VI) with chromium(VI), complexation of the free fluoride with aluminum(III), and separation of the uranium by pulsed column extraction with tributylphosphate in kerosene. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the analytical program for this process. Because of the high burnup of uranium, the samples contained high concentrations of flssion products which are chemically complex and interfere with conventional methods of analysis. The high activity level of the samples required use of a special remote handling facility. Methods are described for uranium, acidity, zirconium, aluminum, fluoride, and specific gravity in the dissolver and column feed solutions; for small amounts of uranium in the extraction column raffinates; and for tributylphosphate in the extractant. Typical reliability data are given for each of the described analytical methods. (auth)

• Research Organization: Phillips Petroleum Co. Atomic Energy Div., Idaho Falls, Idaho
• DOE Contract Number: AT(10-1)-205
• NSA Number: NSA-12-001293
• OSTI ID: 4330907
• Report Number(s): IDO-14413
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

ALUMINUM
BURNUP
BUTYL PHOSPHATES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMISTRY
ENRICHMENT
EXTRACTION COLUMNS
FISSION PRODUCTS
FLUORIDES
FUEL ELEMENTS
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
OXIDATION
PETROLEUM
PRODUCTION
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
RECOVERY
REMOTE HANDLING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLUBILITY
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
URANIUM
ZIRCONIUM
ZIRCONIUM ALLOYS