ANL progress in minimizing effects of LEU conversion on calcination of fission-product {sup 99}Mo acid waste solution.
A partnership between Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), MDS Nordion (MDSN), Atomic Energy Canada Limited (AECL) and SGN (France) has addressed the conversion of the MAPLE Reactor 99Mo production process from high-enriched uranium (HEU) targets to low-enriched uranium (LEU) targets. One effect of the conversion would be to increase the amount of solid uranium waste five-fold; we have worked to minimize the effect of the additional waste on the overall production process and, in particular, solid waste storage. Two processes were investigated for the treatment of the uranium-rich acidic waste solution: direct calcination, and oxalate precipitation as a prelude to calcination. Direct calcination generates a dense UO3 solid that should allow a significantly greater amount of uranium in one waste container than is planned for the HEU process, but doing so results in undesirable sputtering. These results suggest that direct calcination could be adapted for use with LEU targets without a large effect on the uranium waste treatment procedures. The oxalate-calcination generates a lower-density granular U3O8 product; sputtering is not significant during calcination of the uranyl oxalate precipitate. A physical means to densify the product would need to be developed to increase the amount of uranium in each waste container. Future work will focus on the specific chemical reactions that occur during the direct and oxalate calcination processes.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 973460
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/CMT/CP-111594; TRN: US201006%%561
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 25th International Meeting on Reduced Enrichment for Research and Test Reactors (RERTR 2003); Oct. 5, 2003 - Oct. 10, 2003; Chicago, IL
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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