CORRELATION OF RADIOACTIVE WASTE TREATMENT COSTS AND THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF WASTE EFFLUENTS IN THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE CONVERSION OF YELLOW CAKE TO URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE. PART I. THE FLUORINATION-FRACTIONATION PROCESS

摘要

A study was made to determine the dollar cost and effectiveness of radwaste-chemwaste treatment systems for decreasing the amounts of radioactive materials and chemicals released from a model uranium hexafluoride (UF6 ) production plant using the fluorination-fractionation (dry hydrofluor) process. A second objective was to estimate the radiological impact (50-year dose commitment) of the released radioactive materials on the environment. A UF6 production facility purifies the semirefined uranium ore concentrate, called yellow cake, produced by the mills and converts it to UF6 suitable for feed to the enrichment plants.