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Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production

Abstract

The Caetité uranium mill was commissioned in 2000 to produce about 340 t U per year from an uranium ore averaging 0.29% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. This production is sufficient to supply the two operating nuclear power plants in the country. As the Brazilian government has recently confirmed its plan to start building another ones from 2009, the uranium production will have to expand its capacity in the next two years. This paper describes the changes in the milling process that are being evaluated in order to not only increase the production but also the uranium recovery, to fulfil the increasing local demand. The heap leaching process will be changed to conventional tank agitated leaching of ground ore slurry in sulphuric acid medium. Batch and pilot plant essays have shown that the uranium recovery can increase from the 77% historical average to about 93%. As the use of sodium chloride as the stripping agent has presented detrimental effects in the extraction and stripping process, two alternatives are being evaluated for the uranium recovery from the PLS: (a) uranium peroxide precipitation at controlled pH from a PLS that was firstly neutralized and filtered. Batch essays have shown good results with a final  More>>
Authors:
Gomiero, L. A.; Scassiotti Filho, W.; Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br; [1]  Cunha, J. W.; [2]  Morais, C. A. [3] 
  1. Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil S/A — INB, Caetité, BA (Brazil)
  2. Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear-IEN/CNEN, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)
  3. Centro do Desenvolvimento da Tec. Nuclear-CDTN/CNEN, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)
Publication Date:
May 15, 2014
Product Type:
Conference
Report Number:
IAEA-TECDOC-1739
Resource Relation:
Conference: URAM-2009: 3. International Symposium on Uranium Raw Material for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Exploration, Mining, Production, Supply and Demand, Economics and Environmental Issues, Vienna (Austria), 22-26 Jun 2009; Other Information: 7 refs., 2 figs., 1 tab.; Related Information: In: Uranium Raw Material for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Exploration, Mining, Production, Supply and Demand, Economics and Environmental Issues (URAM-2009). Proceedings of an International Symposium| 322 p.
Subject:
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS; AMINES; DEMAND; EXTRACTION; FEED MATERIALS PLANTS; GYPSUM; LEACHING; MATERIALS RECOVERY; MILLING; NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS; PH VALUE; PILOT PLANTS; PRECIPITATION; SLURRIES; SODIUM CHLORIDES; STRIPPING; SULFURIC ACID; URANIUM; URANIUM ORES; URANIUM OXIDES U3O8; URANIUM PEROXIDE
OSTI ID:
22320773
Research Organizations:
International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Materials Section, Vienna (Austria); OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, Issy-les-Moulineaux (France); Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington, DC (United States); World Nuclear Association, London (United Kingdom)
Country of Origin:
IAEA
Language:
English
Other Identifying Numbers:
Other: ISBN 978-92-0-105014-4; ISSN 1011-4289; TRN: XA15M0018026975
Availability:
Available from INIS in electronic form. Also available on-line: http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/TE-1739_web.pdf; Enquiries should be addressed to IAEA, Marketing and Sales Unit, Publishing Section, E-mail: sales.publications@iaea.org; Web site: http://www.iaea.org/books
Submitting Site:
INIS
Size:
page(s) 151-159
Announcement Date:
Apr 01, 2015

Citation Formats

Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., and Morais, C. A. Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production. IAEA: N. p., 2014. Web.
Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., & Morais, C. A. Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production. IAEA.
Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., and Morais, C. A. 2014. "Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production." IAEA.
@misc{etde_22320773,
title = {Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production}
author = {Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., and Morais, C. A.}
abstractNote = {The Caetité uranium mill was commissioned in 2000 to produce about 340 t U per year from an uranium ore averaging 0.29% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. This production is sufficient to supply the two operating nuclear power plants in the country. As the Brazilian government has recently confirmed its plan to start building another ones from 2009, the uranium production will have to expand its capacity in the next two years. This paper describes the changes in the milling process that are being evaluated in order to not only increase the production but also the uranium recovery, to fulfil the increasing local demand. The heap leaching process will be changed to conventional tank agitated leaching of ground ore slurry in sulphuric acid medium. Batch and pilot plant essays have shown that the uranium recovery can increase from the 77% historical average to about 93%. As the use of sodium chloride as the stripping agent has presented detrimental effects in the extraction and stripping process, two alternatives are being evaluated for the uranium recovery from the PLS: (a) uranium peroxide precipitation at controlled pH from a PLS that was firstly neutralized and filtered. Batch essays have shown good results with a final calcined precipitate averaging 99% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. Conversely the results obtained at the first pilot plant essay has shown that the precipitation conditions of the continuous process calls for further evaluation. The pilot plant is being improved and another essay will be carried out. (b) uranium extraction with a tertiary amine followed by stripping with concentrated sulphuric acid solution. Efforts are being made to recover the excess sulphuric acid from the pregnant stripping solution to enhance the economic viability of the process and to avoid the formation of a large quantity of gypsum in the pre-neutralization step before the uranium peroxide precipitation. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2014}
month = {May}
}