Abstracts and Available Papers Presented at the
1998 International RERTR Meeting

ALTERNATIVE ROUTE FOR UF₆ CONVERSION TOWARDS UF₄ TO
PRODUCE METALLIC URANIUM

Frajndlich,E.U.C.^*;Saliba-Silva A.M.^** ;Zorzetto M.A.^*

Instituto de Pesquisas Energéticas e Nucleares (IPEN/CNEN-SP)
Departamento do Ciclo do Combustível

^*Divisão de Processos Químicos

^**Divisão de Processos Metalúrgicos
Travessa "R", 400 – Cidade Universitária –CEP 05508-900
São Paulo – São Paulo – Brasil

Fone (011) 816-9340 – Fax (011) 816 9394
e-mails: [email protected]r; [email protected]; [email protected]

Abstract

The present work is focused on a study for the preparation of uranium tetrafluoride UF₄ appropriate for the metallic uranium (U^o) reduction from solutions obtained by uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) hydrolysis using stannous chloride (SnCl₂) as the reducing agent.

The objective of the present study has been on one hand to gather experience within the uranium tetrafluoride preparation technology field by making use of an alternative, safe and simple process with which the knowledge obtained through uranium hexafluoride hydrolysis solution could be used, and on the other hand to determine the best conditions for obtaining this product, in view of the effect of experimental variables over the physical and chemical characteristics of the powder obtained, particularly the contents of uranium dioxide (UO₂), uranyl fluoride (UO₂F₂), the contents of hydrating water and specific surface, in order to make a correlation of those properties with the yielding of the reduction reaction caused by that compound at uranium metal producing.The metallurgical process for metallic uranium production is updated.

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