Minimizing the Uranium Content of Gyp Cakes

摘要

These results were reported to the B.P. personnel (Ref. 3) and discussed thoroughly with them, and the use of 383003 as a neutralizing agent was adopted shortly thereafter in the Recovery Bldg. Our formal recommendation for this change was combined with the write-up on substitution of MnO2 for H2O2 in the digestion tubs (Ref. 5).nAfter some problems of isolating the U from Na2CO3 solution were investigated, a Na2CO3 reworking process (Ref. 4) was submitted to the B.P. Area. It consisted of an aqueous diges¬tion, a filtration from insoluble material, precipitation of the U as Na or Ca salt, which in turn could be re-sulfated for con¬version to the desired peruranic acid. An alternate route for fairly pure materials - I.e., relatively free of V and Cr, which catalyze the decomposition of H2O2 - was to destroy the carbonate by acidification, with subsequent precipitation of peruranic acid.