Depleted-uranium recovery from and cleaning of target sands

Patent · Mon Feb 03 23:00:00 EST 1986

OSTI ID:6078428

Elliott, G R.B.

This patent describes a method of removing uranium and its oxidation products from target sands and consists of: (a) providing a container means which can be heated; (b) adding uranium-containing target sands to the container; (c) adding a salt mixture comprising at least 70 weight percent of a salt selected from the group consisting of nitrates of magnesium, calcium, potassium, sodium, and lithium to the container; (d) heating the target sands and the salt mixture together to fuse the salt to convert the uranium to uranium oxidation products; (e) adding water to dissolve the salt component into aqueous solution and removing the aqueous solution; (f) adding nitric acid to dissolve the uranium oxidation products into aqueous nitric acid solution; and (g) rinsing the target sands with water washing out the dissolved uranium oxidation products.

• Assignee: NOV; EDB-86-071513
• Patent Number(s): US 4568487
• OSTI ID: 6078428
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050601* -- Nuclear Fuels-- By-Products-- Depleted Uranium-- (-1987)
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
ACTINIDES
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
AQUEOUS SOLUTIONS
CALCIUM COMPOUNDS
CALCIUM NITRATES
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CLEANING
CONTAINERS
DEPLETED URANIUM
DISPERSIONS
DISSOLUTION
ELEMENTS
HEATING
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INORGANIC ACIDS
LITHIUM COMPOUNDS
LITHIUM NITRATES
MAGNESIUM COMPOUNDS
MAGNESIUM NITRATES
METALS
MIXTURES
NITRATES
NITRIC ACID
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
OXIDATION
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
POTASSIUM NITRATES
RECOVERY
SAND
SODIUM COMPOUNDS
SODIUM NITRATES
SOLUTIONS
URANIUM
WATER
YIELDS