SEPARATION OF URANIUM-IRON ALLOY FROM THE ATOMIC VAPOR LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION PROCESS INO URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE AND IRON

A MOLTEN SALT PROCESS IS DESCRIBED FOR SEPARATING THE COMPONENTS OF THE ALLOY OF ENRICHED URANIUM AND IRON WHICH IS THE PRODUCT OF THE ATOMIC VAPOR LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION (AVLIS) PROCESS TO ENRICH THE (235)U CONTENT OF THE PRENT METAL. A SIMPLE SEPARATION WOULD DISSOLVE THE ENRICHED URANIUM HEXAFLUORIDE WHICH WOULD BE RECOVERED AND PURIFIED BY VAPORIZATION FROM THE MOLTEN SALT. VAPORIZED AND CONDENSED HESAFLUORIDE CAN THEN BE CONVERTED BY STANDARD TECHNOLOGY TO ENRICHED URANIUM OXIDE WHICH IS USED AS A REACTOR FUEL FOR COMMERCIAL NUCLEAR POWER PLANTSW. THE SEPARATION WOULD ENABLE THE REMOVAL OF THE IRON POWDER WHICH WOULD BE RETURNED TO THE AVLIS ALOY FEED. THIS FEED IS FORMED FROM IRON AND NATURAL URANIUM METAL. PHASE I WILL PREPARE THEORETICAL ANALYSES AND EXPERIMENTAL PLANS AND PERFORM PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENTS WHICH WILL LEAD, IN PHASE II, TO PROVING THE CONCEPT AND DEVELOPING BENCH SCALE EQUIPMENT.