Exothermic Reactions Leading to Unexpected Meltdown of Scrap Uranium--Aluminum Cermet Cores During Outgassing.

摘要

During routine outgassing of scrap uranium-aluminum cermet cores,unexpected exothermic reactions released sufficient energy to melt nine cores. In the subsequent investigation,compounds in the scrap uranium were identified,the history of the material was defined,and thermal analysis studies were made. The incident was initiated by reactions at approximately 350exp 0 C between powdered aluminum metal and sodium uranate salt,Na sub 2 U sub 2 O sub 7 . These reactions released sufficient energy to initiate aluminothermic reduction of (NH sub 4 ) sub 3UO sub 2 F sub 5 ,NaNO sub 3 ,UO sub 3 ,and U sub 3 O sub 8 . The energy release from aluminothermic reduction reactions was sufficient to melt the cermet cores. (ERA citation 03:042309)