ANALYTICAL PROGRAM FOR PROCESSING STAINLESS STEEL URANIUM DIOXIDE REACTOR FUEL ELEMENTS

摘要

Analytical programs have been described for uranium recovery processes for aluminum-uranium and zirconium-uranium reactor fuel elements. It is the purpose of this paper to describe the analytical program for the uranium re¬covery process involving stainless steel-uranium reactor fuel elements.nThe recovery process consists of a two step dissolution and the regular liquid-liquid solvent extraction using TBP in kerosene. Sulfuric acid is used to dissolve the stainless steel. As a result of the sulfuric acid dissolution the uranium is converted to a slurry. The uranium slurry is then dissolved in nitric acid. After the nitric acid dissolution the feed material is compatible with the extraction columns used at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant for other type fuel elements previously described.