Hulls, nitrated

Oat Hulls,. Nitrated. Proposed as an ingredient of expls in combination with such oxidizers as AN, Na nitrate, etc Nitrated balsam pulp or bagasse (see Vol 2, B4-L) could also be used Ref W.deC. Crater, USP 2096089 (1937) ... 

Hulls, Nitrated. Kruger studied the action of concd(d 1.52) nitric acid on a variety of plant hulls, such as those of chestnuts, walnuts, plum-pits, etc. After 12 hours at -10° in the acid a considerable portion of the hulls dissolved leaving a residue (40-60% of the original weight) that contained 11 -12%N primarily in the form of nitrate esters. When water was added the dissolved material, a slimy precipitate was formed. It also contained N but less than the residue. Moreover this N was only partly in the form of nitrates... 

Hull. The outer covering or husk of any seed or fruit. Some of these substances, for instance, walnut or cocoanut hulls (shells) can be nitrated and probably would produce explosives resembling NC or NS... 

After all of the holes were drilled, we went back with a specially designed air device and blew previously prepared ammonium nitrate into the shot holes. This ammonium nitrate came premixed from the factory with powdered walnut hulls and diesel fuel. (It Is referenced in the trade as a blasting agent. It s cheaper than dynamite, with not too much less ability to do the work. The material s greatest drawback is its lumpy, clumpy nature when temperatures get to 409F and below.)... 

A basket can be used to introduce the fuel element pieces into the nitrate melt and withdraw the cladding hulls following the disaggregation of the fuel material. 

Sheared fuel is fed to a receiving basket held in one compartment of a three-compartment semicontinuous dissolver. Nitric acid is fed continuously to the compartment and leach liquor is discharged continuously from it to the feed adjustment tank. When the basket is filled with fuel, the compartment holding it is rotated to a second position in which dissolution of the remaining oxide fuel in additional acid is completed. The basket and fuel hulls are finally rotated to a third position where water washes the residual leach liquor into the feed adjustment tank. The nitric acid contains 5.6 g of gadolinium as nitrate, to prevent criticality. 

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