Uranium Anodic Dissolution under Slightly Alkaline Conditions Progress Report Full-Scale Demonstration with DU Foil
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) is developing an alternative method for digesting irradiated low enriched uranium (LEU) foil targets to produce 99Mo in neutral/alkaline media. This method consists of the electrolytic dissolution of irradiated uranium foil in sodium bicarbonate solution, followed by precipitation of base-insoluble fission and activation products, and uranyl-carbonate species with CaO. The addition of CaO is vital for the effective anion exchange separation of 99MoO42- from the fission products, since most of the interfering anions (e.g., CO32-) are removed from the solution, while molybdate remains in solution. An anion exchange is used to retain and to purify the 99Mo from the filtrate. The electrochemical dissolver has been designed and fabricated in 304 stainless-steel (SS), and tested for the dissolution of a full-size depleted uranium (DU) target, wrapped in Al foil. Future work will include testing with low-burn-up DU foil at Argonne and later with high-burn-up LEU foils at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
- Research Organization:
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE NA Office of Nonproliferation and Verification Research and Development (NA-22)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-06CH11357
- OSTI ID:
- 1121041
- Report Number(s):
- ANL/CSE-13/35
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- ENGLISH
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