Production of sized particles of uranium oxides and uranium oxyfluorides

摘要

A process for converting uranium hexafluoride (UF.sub.6) to uranium dioxide (UO.sub.2) of a relatively large particle size in a fluidized bed reactor by mixing uranium hexafluoride with a mixture of steam and hydrogen and by preliminary reacting in an ejector gaseous uranium hexafluoride with steam and hydrogen to form a mixture of uranium and oxide and uranium oxyfluoride seed particles of varying sizes, separating the larger particles from the smaller particles in a cyclone separator, recycling the smaller seed particles through the ejector to increase their size, and introducing the larger seed particles from the cyclone separator into a fluidized bed reactor where the seed particles serve as nuclei on which coarser particles of uranium dioxide are formed.