Dissolution of Highly Enriched Uranium from the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory

Technical Report · Wed Jan 14 04:00:00 EST 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/821175· OSTI ID:821175

Rudisill, T S

Since the capability to purify uranium (U) was terminated at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) in the early 1990's, excess highly enriched uranium (HEU) from the cleanout of uranium trioxide (UO3) production equipment will be shipped to the Savannah River Site (SRS) for disposition. The excess material will be dissolved in Phase I of HB-Line, purified by solvent extraction, and blended with normal U to an enrichment which can be used to fabricate fuel for Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reactors. The proposed HB-Line processing strategy is to dissolve up to 3 kg of material per 18 L dissolver batch. To demonstrate the proposed processing strategy, two samples of the HEU were shipped to the Savannah River Technology Center (SRTC). The material was used in a series of small-scale experiments in which prototypical amounts were dissolved to characterize the offgas and measure the dissolution time under varying process conditions. Complete dissolution of the U was obtained in 15-30 min for experiments performed at 23-60 degrees Celsius. The HEU was dissolved in 3.5M HNO3 using the solids to liquid ratio proposed for use in HB-Line. The experiment performed at 23 degrees Celsius demonstrated that rapid heat generation during the dissolution is not a concern.

• Research Organization: Savannah River Site (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-96SR18500
• OSTI ID: 821175
• Report Number(s): WSRC-TR-2003-00367
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
DISSOLUTION
DISSOLVERS
HIGHLY ENRICHED URANIUM
REPROCESSING
SOLVENT EXTRACTION
URANIUM
URANIUM RECYCLE
URANIUM TRIOXIDE