AUTOMATION OF HIGH-PURITY ZIRCONIUM PRODUCTION FROM WASTES AND RECYCLED MATERIALS ON INDUSTRIAL EQUIPMENT AT THE CHEPETSKII MECHANICAL PLANT

摘要

Iodide refining makes it possible to obtain the purest zirconium under industrial conditions . Zirconium of the highest purity obtained by iodide refining is used as a component in the charge for smelting alloys to be used in reactors . Iodide refining processes are currently conducted at Chepetskii Mechanical Plant (ChMZ) in the Ts-40M apparatus of SKB-5025 furnaces . According to the data presented in the Table 1, the actual impurity content in zirconium rods is 2.6 times lower than the technical specifications and the content of individual impurities, as a rule, corresponds to their limit of detection. The main drawback of this process is low direct metal yield in the iodide rod and high energy-intensiveness. It should be noted that the formation process for volatile zirconium compounds itself and the thermal dissociation of these compounds on a very hot wire in the Ts-40M metal apparatus have not been completely studied, which makes it impossible to determine unequivocally the temperature regime maximizing the zirconium deposition rate during the process.