AQUEOUS PROCESSING OF THORIUM FUELS. PART II

Technical Report · Tue Nov 27 04:00:00 EST 1962

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4751941· OSTI ID:4751941

Blanco, R E; Ferris, L M; Watson, C D; Rainey, R H

The status of aqueous processing methods for Th fuels is reviewed. A specially designed 320 ton shear was successfully tested for chopping full size simulated Consolidated Edison type unirradiated assemblies into 0.25-1.5 in. lengths. Pieces about 0.5-in. long are preferred since the core pellets are more severely crushed during the chopping operation, and consequently, the rate of core dissolution is enhanced. The Darex (dtlute aqua regia) and Sulfex (4 to 6 M sulfuric acid) processes for dissolution of stainless steel claddings were developed on a small engineering scale with unirradiated fuel. In hot cell tests on stainless steel clad ThO/sub 2/-UO/sub 2/ fuel pins irradiated up to 22,000 Mwd/ton of fuel, the core pellets were severely fractured and losses of U and Th to the Sulfex and Darex solutions were approximates 0.3% and 3 to 5%, respectively. The latter losses are easily recovered in the extraction system. U and Th can be recovered from graphite base fuels by burning and dissoiution of the ash in HNO/sub 3/ or by grinding to approximates 200 mesh followed by HNO/sub 3/ leaching. The Acid Thorex extraction process was developed to recover both U and Th using tributyl phosphate (TBP) as the solvent and the Acid Interim 23 process to recover only the U using either TBP or disecbutyl phenyl phosphate as the solvent. The Acid'' processes use HNO/sub 3/ rather than Al as the salting agent. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., Tenn.
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-17-006186
• OSTI ID: 4751941
• Report Number(s): ORNL-TM-420
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

BUTYL PHOSPHATES
CHEMISTRY
DAREX PROCESS
FUEL CANS
FUELS
GRAPHITE
LEACHING
NITRIC ACID
RECOVERY
REPROCESSING
RESIDUES
SOLUTIONS
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
STAINLESS STEELS
SULFEX PROCESS
THOREX PROCESS
THORIUM
THORIUM OXIDES
URANIUM DIOXIDE
WATER