Plutonium residue recovery (PuRR) project: Quarterly progress report, January--March 1989
This quarterly report presents experimental and conceptual design information covering the development of a new pyrochemical process to recover weapons-grade plutonium from and reduce the amount of aqueous process intractable transuranic (TRU) residues now stored at Department of Energy facilities. During this period, experiments were performed in which zinc-calcium alloys were used to reduce the Rocky Flats ash heel. They offer potential advantages to reduce wastes because of reagent recycle. One reduction run using zinc-10 wt % calcium alloy was 99.7% complete. In another run, the calcium was titrated into the zinc alloy to observe the stepwise progression of the reduction. In support of planned electrochemical recovery of calcium, experiments were performed to determine the solubility of calcium CaCl/sub 2/-CaF/sub 2/ in the presence of zinc-calcium alloys. Also, initial experiments with reference electrodes for electrochemical operations or titration-type chemical reactions were encouraging. Pyrolytic boron nitride and vitreous carbon underwent preliminary evaluation for use as materials in the equipment under development. Electrochemical cells were designed for recovering calcium from the salt used in the oxide reduction step. Calculations were made to estimate activity coefficients for plutonium in calcium-zinc alloys. 16 refs., 9 figs., 5 tabs.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 6019819
- Report Number(s):
- UCID-21542-89-1; ON: DE89013713
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
PLUTONIUM
RECOVERY
PYROCHEMICAL REPROCESSING
OPTIMIZATION
CALCIUM
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
ELECTRODES
ELECTROREFINING
EXTRACTION
OXIDATION
PROGRESS REPORT
SCRAP
ZINC
ACTINIDES
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DOCUMENT TYPES
ELECTROLYSIS
ELEMENTS
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
LYSIS
METALS
PROCESSING
REFINING
REPROCESSING
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLID WASTES
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
WASTES
052001* - Nuclear Fuels- Waste Processing
050800 - Nuclear Fuels- Spent Fuels Reprocessing