METHOD OF PROCESSING HIGH-CONCENTRATION URANIUM Russian patent published in 1998 - IPC

FIELD: uranium processing. SUBSTANCE: invention relates to processing high- concentration uranium into power-destination low-concentration uranium by way of diluting the former. Method includes oxidation of uranium metal, fluoridation of oxides obtained into uranium hexafluoride (residual uranium content in the cinders is 10-25% based on the weight of uranium fed into fluoridation stage), afterpurification of uranium hexafluoride to remove plutonium hexafluoride by selectively sorbing the latter on sodium fluoride, preparation of uranyl nitrate solution from fluoridation cinders, extraction-sorption purification of uranyl nitrate, and its denitration to produce uranium oxides which are returned into fluoridation stage. Time and temperature of uranium hexafluoride afterpurification process is chosen in dependence of conditions determined by equation: where C_o and C are concentrations of plutonium in uranium hexafluoride before and after afterpurification process, respectively; τ uranium hexafluoride-sorbent contact time, s; and T sorbent temperature, K. EFFECT: optimized process parameters. 2 cl, 1 tbl