Laboratory development of a process for recovering uranium from Rover fuel by combustion, liquid-phase chlorination with hexachloropropene, and aqueous extraction

Technical Report · Fri Jun 28 04:00:00 EDT 1963

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4392172· OSTI ID:4392172

Gens, T A; Borne, T B

Declassified 24 Sep 1973. The purpose of this work was to develop a process for recovering the uranium from spent Rover fuels. Only one reactor is used, and the process involves a 4-hr combustion of the fuel in oxygen at about 800 deg C, a 4-hr chlorination of the U/sub 3/O/sub 8/-Nb/ sub 2/O/sub 5/ ash in refluxing hexachloropropene at 180 deg C, dissolution-extraction of the UCl/sub 4/ and NbCl/sub 5/ products at room temperature by dilute nitric acid, and extraction of the uranium from the resulting acid solution with 30% TBP in Amsco diluent. The results indicate that an extract containing 50 g of uranium per liter can be produced in seven or eight extraction stages, with total uranium losses of less than 0.02%. Corrosion rates of several possible construction materials during chlorination are less than 0.1 mil/month. Problems in the process involve handling about 10% of the niobium as a solid during the liquid- liquid separations, and handling solutions containing chloride. The results of this laboratory-scale work indicate that the liquid-phase chlorination and subsequent extraction operations are reducible to large-scale practice, since these operations resemble the liquid-phase operations typically performed in radiochemical separation plants. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn. (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-29-004989
• OSTI ID: 4392172
• Report Number(s): ORNL--3435
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

*SPENT FUELS-- REPROCESSING
*URANIUM-- SEPARATION PROCESSES
AMSCO
CHLORINATED ALIPHATIC HYDROCARBONS
CHLORINATION
COMBUSTION
CORROSION
DISSOLUTION
N40450* --Chemistry--Radiochemistry & Nuclear Chemistry-- Reactor Fuel Processing
NESDPS Office of Nuclear Energy Space and Defense Power Systems
NIOBIUM
NIOBIUM CHLORIDES
NIOBIUM OXIDES
NITRIC ACID
ORGANIC CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN
ROVER REACTORS
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
TBP
URANIUM CHLORIDES
URANIUM OXIDES U3O8
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE