Development Program for PU-238 Agueous Recovery Process.

[摘要] Aqueous processing is necessary for the removal of impurities from (sup 238)Pu dioxide ((sup 238)PuO(sub 2)) fuel due to unacceptable levels of (sup 234)U and other non-actinide impurities in the scrap fuel. Impurities at levels above General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) fuel specifications may impair the performance of the heat sources. Efforts at Los Alamos have focused on developing the bench scale methodology for the aqueous process steps which includes comminution, dissolution, ion exchange, precipitation, and calcination. Recently, work has been performed to qualify the bench scale methodology, to show that the developed process produces pure (sup 238)PuO(sub 2) meeting GPHS fuel specifications. In addition, this work has enabled us to determine how waste volumes may be minimized during full-scale processing. Results of process qualification for the bench scale aqueous recovery operation and waste minimization efforts are presented.

[发布机构] Technical Information Center Oak Ridge Tennessee

[学科分类] 工程和技术（综合）

[关键词] Calcination;Comminution;Dissolution;Precipitation;Bench-scale experiments