Slag remelt purification of irradiated vanadium alloys
This paper describes theoretical and scoping experimental efforts to investigate the decontamination potential of a slag remelting process for decontaminating irradiated vanadium alloys. Theoretical calculations, using a commercial thermochemical computer code HSC Chemistry, determined the potential slag compositions and slag-vanadium alloy ratios. The experiment determined the removal characteristics of four surrogate transmutation isotopes (Ca, Y - to simulate Sc, Mn, and Ar) from a V-5Ti-5Cr alloy with calcium fluoride slag. An electroslag remelt furnace was used in the experiment to melt and react the constituents. The process achieved about a 90 percent removal of calcium and over 99 percent removal of yttrium. Analyses indicate that about 40 percent of the manganese may have been removed. Argon analyses indicates that 99.3% of the argon was released from the vanadium alloy in the first melt increasing to 99.7% during the second melt. Powder metallurgy techniques were used to incorporate surrogate transmutation products in the vanadium. A powder mixture was prepared with the following composition: 90 wt % vanadium, 4.7 wt % titanium, 4.7 wt % chromium, 0.35 wt % manganese, 0.35 wt % CaO, and 0.35 wt % Y{sub 2}O{sub 3}. This mixture was packed into 2.54 cm diameter stainless steel tubes. Argon was introduced into the powder mixture by evacuating and backfilling the stainless steel containers to a pressure of 20 kPa (0.2 atm). The tubes were hot isostatically pressed at 207 MPa (2000 atm) and 1473 K to consolidate the metal. An electroslag remelt furnace (crucible dimensions: 5.1 cm diameter by 15.2 cm length) was used to process the vanadium electrodes. Chemical analyses were performed on samples extracted from the slags and ingots. Ingot analyses results are shown below. Values are shown in percent removal of the four targeted elements of the initial compositions.
- Research Organization:
- EG and G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC07-94ID13223
- OSTI ID:
- 120902
- Report Number(s):
- INEL-95/00324; CONF-950786-4; ON: DE96001853; TRN: 95:007909
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 3. annual conference on the recycle and reuse of radioactive scrap metal, Knoxville, TN (United States), 31 Jul - 3 Aug 1995; Other Information: PBD: Jul 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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