Gaseous diffusion process

Uranium hexafluoride is used in the gaseous diffusion process for the separation and enrichment of uranium-235, which exists in low concentration in natural uranium. The enriched UF is converted back into an oxide and used as fuel for the nuclear power industry. 

Natural uranium consists mostly of and 0.711 wt % plus an inconsequential amount of The United States was the first country to employ the gaseous diffusion process for the enrichment of the fissionable natural uranium isotope. During the 1940s and 1950s, this enrichment appHcation led to the investment of several bUHon dollars in process faciHties. The original plants were built in 1943—1945 in Oak Ridge, Teimessee, as part of the Manhattan Project of World War II. 

Successful operation of the gaseous diffusion process requires a special, fine-pored diffusion barrier, mechanically rehable and chemically resistant to corrosive attack by the process gas. For an effective separating barrier, the diameter of the pores must approach the range of the mean free path of the gas molecules, and in order to keep the total barrier area required as small as possible, the number of pores per unit area must be large. Seals are needed on the compressors to prevent both the escape of process gas and the inflow of harm fill impurities. Some of the problems of cascade operation are discussed in Reference 16. 

The need for a large number of stages and for the special equipment makes gaseous diffusion an expensive process. The three United States gaseous diffusion plants represent a capital expenditure of close to 2.5 x 10 dollars (17). However, the gaseous diffusion process is one of the more economical processes yet devised for the separation of uranium isotopes on a large scale. 

If the power requirement of the gaseous diffusion process were no greater than the power required to recompress the stage upflow from the pressure on the low-pressure side of the barrier to that on the high-pressure side, then the power requirement of the stage would be Z RTLq (1 /r) for the case where the compression is performed isotherm ally. The power requirement per unit of separative capacity would then be given simply by the ratio... 

Enrichment, Isotopic—An isotopic separation process by which the relative abundances of the isotopes of a given element are altered, thus producing a form of the element that has been enriched in one or more isotopes and depleted in others. In uranium enrichment, the percentage of uranium-235 in natural uranium can be increased from 0.7% to >90% in a gaseous diffusion process based on the different thermal velocities of the constituents of natural uranium (234U, 235U, 238U) in the molecular form UF6. 

The first S5m.thetic ventures into actinide and lanthanide organometalhc chemistry were attempted during World War II and were motivated by the need for stable, volatile uranium complexes in the uranium gaseous diffusion process. It soon became apparent that the homoalkyl complexes (MR4) of uranium were extremely unstable and at best could exist only as transient intermediates at low temperatures [128). With the isolation of the tricyclopentadienides of the lanthanides in 1954, the focus of /-transition metal organometaUic chemistry shifted to the n-carbocychc complexes and has remained unchanged until the recent isolation of stable alkyls and aryls of both the lanthanides and actinides. 

The compound is used in the gaseous diffusion process to separate uranium isotopes... 

Uranium Hexafluoride (Uranyl hexafluoride). UF6 mw 352.02 colorless, deliq monocl crysts mp 64.5—64.8° bp, subl at 56.2° d 4.68g/cc at 21°. Sol in liq Br, Cl2, C tetrachloride, sym-tetrachlorethane and fluorocarbons. Reacts with extreme violence with benz, ethanol, toluene, w or xylene. Prepn is by reaction of dried, powdered U308 with F gas above 600°. Product purification is by vac sublimation in a quartz appar. The vapor behaves as a nearly perfect gas. The compd has a AHf of 2197.7 1,8KJ/mole. It is used in the gaseous diffusion process for the sepn of U isotopes Refs 1) Gmelin, Syst Nr 55 (1940), 124-31 2) G. Brauer, Handbook of Preparative Inorganic Chemistry , Academic Press, NY (1963), 262 3) CondChemDict (1977), 904-05... 

VOIDS. Empty spaces of molecular dimensions occurring between closely packed solid particles, as in powder metallurgy. Their presence permits barriers made by powder metallurgy techniques to act as diffusion membranes for separation of uranium isotopes in the gaseous diffusion process. 

Uranium hexafluoride, UFg, is used in the gaseous diffusion process for separating uranium isotopes since not all uranium isotopes can be undergo chain reaction, a requirement for use in reactors and nuclear weapons. How many kilograms of elementary uranium can be converted to UFg per kilogram of combined fluorine ... 

Gaseous Diffusion. In the gaseous diffusion process, the UFfi flows through a porous nickel membrane called the barrier. The heavier U-238F6 flows more slowly than the U-235F6, and the theoretical separation factor for an equilibrium stage is ... 

Use Gaseous diffusion process for separating isotopes of uranium. 

B3. Benedict, M., and Williams, C., Engineering Developments in the Gaseous Diffusion Process. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1949. 

One of the most important inorganic fluorides is uranium hexafluoride, UFg, which is essential to the gaseous diffusion process for separating isotopes of uranium (U-235... 

Concentrates are shipped from the uranium mill to a uranium refinery or conversion plant. Here chemical impurities are removed and the purified uranium is converted into the chemical form needed for the next step in the fuel cycle. Figure 1.14 shows concentrates being converted into uranium hexafluoride (UF ), the form used as process gas in the gaseous diffusion process for enriching U. Other possible products of a uranium refinery used in other fuel cycles are uranium metal, uranium dioxide, or uranium carbide. Uranium purification and conversion processes are also described in Chap. 5. 

Oose-sepaiation case. In many multistage isotope separation processes a — 1 < 1, so that / — 1 1 and 7 — 1 < 1. The gaseous diffusion process for separating uranium isotopes and the water distillation process for enriching deuterium are examples. 

The development next to be given of equations for the number of stages, interstage flow rates, and fraction on each stage does depend on the process used. In subsequent numerical examples, the gaseous diffusion process with a U/ U stage separation factor of 1.00429 is assumed. 

It is proposed that B be concentrated by the gaseous diffusion process applied to BFs and "BF3. The plant is to be designed as an ideal cascade and is to separate feed containing 19 percent °B into product containing 90 percent and tails containing 8 percent. The stage-separation factor is 1.0074. 

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