Chemical Processing Technology Quarterly Progress Report, October-December 1960

ICPP Operations. Changes made in processing equipment are described, and the use of continuous steam stripping to free waste solvent of Pu is described. Agueous Processing Studies. Studies were made of methods for separating Zr from dissolver solutions of U-Zr alloys. Recovery of U from BeO/ sub 2/-UO/sub 2/ ceramic fuels by grinding-leaching technique using boiling HNO/ sub 3/ reached 75 to 80%. Waste Calcination. Test results of feed spray nozzles for use in the Demonstrational Waste Calcining Facility are given. Studies were made on the calcination of aluminum nitrate and zirconium fluoride waste solutions. Waste Treatment. Removal of Cs and Sr from wastes by adsorption was investigated. The conditions for optimum separation of Fe, Ni, and Cr by Hg cathode electrolysis from waste solutions resulting from processing of stainless steel reactor fuels were determined. Electrolytic Dissolution Systems. The electrolytic dissolution of type 304 stainless steel was studied in the transpassive region as a function of electrode potential and HNO/sub 3/ concentration. An analog simulation study of an electrolytic dissolver is described. A niobium cathode in an electrolytic dissolver dissolving stainless steel in boiling HNO/sub 3/ did not absorb H/sub 2/. The corrosion resistance of several container materials to 1 M HNO/sub 3/ solution containing stainless steel was measured. Electrolytic disintegration of Zircaloy-2 in HNO/sub 3/ was studied. ARCO Process. The ARCO process was adapted to dissolutiom of UO/sub 2/ by addition of Cu as a catalyst to the PbCl/sub 2/-Cl/sub 2/ system. Dissolution rates were measured for Nb in molten PbCl/sub 2/. Equipment Development. Equipment for air pulsing of extraction columns and for preventing criticality of enriched U solutions are described. (D.L.C.