OBTAINING HYDROGEN FLUORIDE DURING THE INTERACTION OF URANIUM HEXAFLUIORIDE WITH HYDROGEN AND OXYGEN IN A COMBUSTION REGIME. EXPERIMENT

In the course of experiments on a pilot plant with a vertical cylindrical reactor of the "tunnel burner" type whose inside diameter is equal to 142 mm, it has been established that when UF₆, H₂, and O₂ with a nearly 1:3:1 molar ratio respectively and a cold-mixture-fl ow Reynolds number of the order of 10,000 are fed to the reactor, a stable fl ame of diffusion combustion is formed. It is initiated by a self-igniting fl uorine-ammonia pair at a fl uorine fl ow rate of the order of 0.5% of the UF₆ fl ow rate. The major uranium-bearing product of the fl ame process was a mixture of uranium oxides, mainly UO₂ and U₃O₈, in which fl uorine covalent-bonded to uranium was present in the amount 0.1–3% mainly in the form of UF₄ and UO₂F₂. The major fl uorine-containing product was hydrofl uoric acid with a content of hydrogen fl uoride higher than 95%. From the data obtained, a technology can be developed for obtaining anhydrous hydrogen fl uoride from depleted uranium hexafl uoride.
   
Author:  D. S. Pashkevich, Yu. I. Alekseev, D. A. Mukhortov, P. S. Kambur, V. B. Petrov, D. A. Bazhenov, A. R. Zimin, P. A. Smolkin, V. V. Kapustin
Keywords:  hydrogen fl uoride, depleted uranium hexafl uoride, uranium oxides, combustion
Page:  1304