Recovery of plutonium by pyroredox processing

Technical Report · Sun Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1985

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6409827· OSTI ID:6409827

McNeese, J A; Bowersox, D F; Christensen, D C

Using pyrochemical oxidation and reduction, we have developed a process to recover the plutonium in impure scrap with less than 95% plutonium. This plutonium metal was further purified by pyrochemical electrorefining. During development of the procedures, depleted electrorefining anodes were processed, and over 80% of the plutonium was recovered as high-purity metal in one electrorefining cycle. Over 40 kg of plutonium has been recovered from 55 kg of impure anodes with our procedures. 6 refs., 7 figs., 4 tabs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6409827
• Report Number(s): LA-10457; ON: DE86003284
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
PLUTONIUM
ELECTROREFINING
PYROCHEMICAL REPROCESSING
CALCIUM CHLORIDES
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
MOLTEN SALTS
PLUTONIUM CHLORIDES
POTASSIUM CHLORIDES
RECOVERY
REDOX PROCESS
ZINC CHLORIDES
ACTINIDE COMPOUNDS
ACTINIDES
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
ALKALINE EARTH METAL COMPOUNDS
CALCIUM COMPOUNDS
CALCIUM HALIDES
CHLORIDES
CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
DATA
ELECTROLYSIS
ELEMENTS
HALIDES
HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
LYSIS
METALS
NUMERICAL DATA
PLUTONIUM COMPOUNDS
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
REFINING
REPROCESSING
SALTS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
TRANSURANIUM COMPOUNDS
TRANSURANIUM ELEMENTS
ZINC COMPOUNDS
ZINC HALIDES
050800* - Nuclear Fuels- Spent Fuels Reprocessing