COMBUSTION-DISSOLUTION EXPERIMENTS WITH IRRADIATED GRAPHITE-BASE REACTOR FUEL CONTAINING CARBON-COATED THORIUM-URANIUM DICARBIDE PARTICLES

Technical Report · Fri Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 1963

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4129321· OSTI ID:4129321

Ferris, L. M.; Warren, K. S.; Ullmann, J. W.; Byrd, L. A.; Thompson, C. T.

Four small pieces of simulated HTGR fuel (from the GAIL-IIIA loop experiment) irradiated to approximately 10,000 Mwd/metric ton (U + Th) were burned in oxygen for 5 hr to determine fission product volatility and dissolubility of the ash. Two of the fuel pieces (C-coated Th-U dicarbide particles dispersed in a graphite matrix; Th/U ratio of about 2.5) were burned at 800 deg C; the other two at about 1200 deg C. Essentially no uranium, thorium, zirconium, or rare earths volatilized in any experiment. 0,reater than 78% of the ruthenium was volatile at 800 deg C and 97 to 99% at 1200 deg C. About 25 to 35% of the cesium vaporized at 800 deg C and 67 to 88% at 1200 deg C. The ThO/sub 2/--U/sub 3/O/sub 8/ combustion ash from the two 800 deg C runs was completely dissolved in 7 hr in refluxing 13M HNO/sub 3/--0.04M HF--0.04M Al(NO/sub 3/)/sub 3/; the final solutions were about 0.5M in Th. The ash from the 1200 deg C runs was slightly more refractory. In one case complete dissolution was achieved; but, in the other, only 97% was dissolved in the 7-hr period. The remaining 3% dissolved in a second 7-hr digestion with fresh reagent. The results of these preliminary experiments indicate that a Burn-Dissolve process for irradiated graphite-base reactor fuels is chemically feasible. (auth)

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• NSA Number: NSA-18-003882
• OSTI ID: 4129321
• Report Number(s): ORNL-TM-688
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Orig. Receipt Date: 31-DEC-64
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

CHEMISTRY
ALUMINUM NITRATES
CARBON
CESIUM
COMBUSTION
FISSION PRODUCTS
FUEL CANS
GRAPHITE
HIGH TEMPERATURE
HYDROFLUORIC ACID
MOCKUP
NITRIC ACID
OXYGEN
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
RARE EARTHS
RESIDUES
RUTHENIUM
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLUBILITY
SOLUTIONS
THORIUM
THORIUM CARBIDES
THORIUM OXIDES
U3O8
URANIUM
URANIUM CARBIDES
VOLATILITY
WASTE PROCESSING
ZIRCONIUM