The Precipitation of Uranium Peroxide in the Presence of Fluorides (open access)

The Precipitation of Uranium Peroxide in the Presence of Fluorides

The large-scale recovery of uranium from materials which also contained great quantities of fluorides did not give a product which had a low enough fluoride content to be treated satisfactorily by the other extraction process. The objective of the investigations carried out in this laboratory was a method of reducing the amount of fluoride which accompanied the uranium. The material from which the uranium was recovered in the industrial process was a slag containing (in addition to uranium) magnesium fluoride, calcium and dolomitic lines, crucible dross, and other waste products from the reaction of magnesium metal and uranium hexafluoride. Most of the fluoride was removed from this mixture by heating the roasted and ground slag with sulfuric acid. The residue was mixed with water and much of the caclium sulfate and fluoride, magnesium fluoride, and hydrated ferric oxide and alumina was precipitated by reducing the acidity. After filtering off the precipitate, ammonium sulfate was added to the solution and uranium peroxide (UO{sub 4} {center_dot} 2H{sub 2}O) was precipitated by addition of hydrogen peroxide. The pH of the solution was maintained between 3.0 and 3.5 during the precipitation by addition of sodium hydroxide. The uranium peroxide, even after washing, contained between …
Date: January 1, 1941
Creator: King, Edward J.
System: The UNT Digital Library