The seperation of Uranium

1. Mining and nerding Uranium is usually mined by any get along (open cut) or underground mining techniques, depending on the depth at which the ore body is found. The mined uranium ore is send to a mill which is usually located close to the mine. At the mill the ore is broken and ground to a fine slurry which is leached in sulfuric back breaker: UO3 + 2H+ ====> UO22+ + H2O UO22+ + 3SO42- ====> UO2(SO4)34- to allow the breakup of uranium from the waste rock. It is and so cured from ancestor and precipitated as uranium oxide (U308) digest. The UO2 is oxidised to UO3. With some ores, change leaching is use to form a soluble uranyl tricarbonate ion: UO2(CO3)34-. This can then be precipitated with an alkali, eg as sodium or magnesium diuranate. alkalic leaching is not undertaken in Australia at present. 2. Conversion Because uranium needs to be in the form of a bungle before it can be enriched, the U308 is converted into the squander uranium hexafluoride (UF6) at a conversion ready in Europe or North America. The mixed uranium oxide concentrate U3O8 received by the refinery is dissolved in nitrous acid. The resulting solution of uranium nitrate UO2(NO3)2.6H2O is fed into a rent outcome extraction process, using tributyl phosphate dissolved in coal oil or dodecane.

The uranium is collected by the organic plant food extractant, from which it can be washed out by lose weight nitric acid solution and then concentrated by evaporation. The solution is then calcined (heated strongly) to produce pure UO3. 3. Enrichment Most nuclear reactors involve uranium to be enriched fr om its natural isotopic report card of 0.7%! U-235 (most of the lodge in being U-238) to 3.5-4% U-235. The enrichment process removes 85% of the U-238 by separating gaseous uranium hexafluoride into two streams: One stream is... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: OrderCustomPaper.com

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