AN IMPROVED THERMOBALANCE REACTOR FOR THE STUDY OF REDUCTION AND HYDROFLUORINATION OF URANIUM FEED MATERIALS

摘要

Two thermobalances have been constructed which make use of an improved reactor design for the study of gas-solid reactions as they apply to the conversion of uranium oxide materiels to uranium tetrafluoride. Since temperature has been recognized as one of the most important rate-governing factors for both of the reactions involved in this transformation, the reactor design provides for maintaining the sample temperature constant to +- 1.0 deg C. at any selected temperature over the range 100 to 600 deg C. Rate-controlling variables such as reaction temperatures, gas flow rates, preheating time and bed depth have been studied in order to establish the ranges over which small variations in these factors can be ignored. (auth)