Uranium , and

It is also used as a reducing agent in the production of pure uranium and other metals from their salts. The hydroxide (milk of magnesia), chloride, sulfate (Epsom salts), and citrate are used in medicine. Dead-burned magnesite is employed for refractory purposes such as brick and liners in furnaces and converters. 

Thorium occurs in thorite and in thorianite. Large deposits of thorium minerals have been reported in New England and elsewhere, but these have not yet been exploited. Thorium is now thought to be about three times as abundant as uranium and about as abundant as lead or molybdenum. Thorium is recovered commercially from the mineral monazite, which contains from 3 to 9% Th02 along with rare-earth minerals. 

The metal is a source of nuclear power. There is probably more energy available for use from thorium in the minerals of the earth s crust than from both uranium and fossil fuels. Any sizable demand from thorium as a nuclear fuel is still several years in the future. Work has been done in developing thorium cycle converter-reactor systems. Several prototypes, including the HTGR (high-temperature gas-cooled reactor) and MSRE (molten salt converter reactor experiment), have operated. While the HTGR reactors are efficient, they are not expected to become important commercially for many years because of certain operating difficulties. 

Much of the internal heat of the earth is thought to be attributable to the presence of uranium and thorium. 

Uranium-235 is of even greater importance because it is the key to utilizing uranium. 23su while occuring in natural uranium to the extent of only 0.71%, is so fissionable with slow neutrons that a self-sustaining fission chain reaction can be made in a reactor constructed from natural uranium and a suitable moderator, such as heavy water or graphite, alone. 

Crystals of uranium nitrate are triboluminescent. Uranium salts have also been used for producing yellow "vaseline" glass and glazes. Uranium and its compounds are highly toxic, both from a chemical and radiological standpoint. 

Another area where controlled-potential coulometry has found application is in nuclear chemistry, in which elements such as uranium and polonium can be determined at trace levels. Eor example, microgram quantities of uranium in a medium of H2SO4 can be determined by reducing U(VI) to U(IV) at a mercury working electrode. 

Lead occurs naturally as a mixture of four non-radioactive isotopes, and Pb, as well as the radioactive isotopes ° Pb and Pb. All but Pb arise by radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. Such decay products are known as radiogenic isotopes. 

A more constrained opportunity for nitrate bioremediation arose at the US-DoE Weldon Spring Site near St. Louis, Missouri. This site had been a uranium and thorium processing faciUty, and treatment of the metal had involved nitric acid. The wastestream, known as raffinate, was discharged to surface inpoundments and neutralized with lime to precipitate the metals. Two pits had nitrate levels that requited treatment before discharge, but heavy rains in 1993 threatened to cause the pits to overflow. Bioremediation by the addition of calcium acetate as a carbon source successfully treated more than 19 million liters of water at a reasonable cost (75). 

The actinide elements are a group of chemically similar elements with atomic numbers 89 through 103 and their names, symbols, atomic numbers, and discoverers are given in Table 1 (1-3) (see Thorium and thorium compounds Uranium and uranium compounds Plutonium and plutonium compounds Nuclear reactors and Radioisotopes). 

Thorium, uranium, and plutonium are well known for their role as the basic fuels (or sources of fuel) for the release of nuclear energy (5). The importance of the remainder of the actinide group Hes at present, for the most part, in the realm of pure research, but a number of practical appHcations are also known (6). The actinides present a storage-life problem in nuclear waste disposal and consideration is being given to separation methods for their recovery prior to disposal (see Waste treati nt, hazardous waste Nuclear reactors, waste managet nt). 

The wastes from uranium and plutonium processing of the reactor fuel usually contain the neptunium. Precipitation, solvent extraction, ion exchange, and volatihty procedures (see Diffusion separation methods) can be used to isolate and purify the neptunium. 

The simple box-type mixer—settler (113) has been used extensively in the UK for the separation and purification of uranium and plutonium (114). In this type of extractor, interstage flow is handled through a partitioned box constmction. Interstage pumping is not needed because the driving force is provided by the density difference between solutions in successive stages (see Plutoniumand plutonium compounds Uraniumand uranium compounds). 

Uranium Extraction from Ore Leach Liquors. Liquid—Hquid extraction is used as an alternative or as a sequel to ion exchange in the selective removal of uranium [7440-61-1] from ore leach Hquors (7,265,271). These Hquors differ from reprocessing feeds in that they are relatively dilute in uranium and only slightly radioactive, and contain sulfuric acid rather than nitric acid. 

Guar gum [9000-30-0] derived from the seed of a legume (11,16), is used as a flocculant in the filtration of mineral pulps leached with acid or cyanide for the recovery of uranium and gold (16). It is also used as a retention aid, usually in a chemically modified form (14,17). Starch and guar gum are subject to biological degradation in solution, so they are usually sold as dry powders that are dissolved immediately before use. Starch requires heating in most cases to be fully dissolved. 

Oxygen and nitrogen also are deterrnined by conductivity or chromatographic techniques following a hot vacuum extraction or inert-gas fusion of hafnium with a noble metal (25,26). Nitrogen also may be deterrnined by the Kjeldahl technique (19). Phosphoms is determined by phosphine evolution and flame-emission detection. Chloride is determined indirecdy by atomic absorption or x-ray spectroscopy, or at higher levels by a selective-ion electrode. Fluoride can be determined similarly (27,28). Uranium and U-235 have been determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (29). 

Argon-40 [7440-37-1] is created by the decay of potassium-40. The various isotopes of radon, all having short half-Hves, are formed by the radioactive decay of radium, actinium, and thorium. Krypton and xenon are products of uranium and plutonium fission, and appreciable quantities of both are evolved during the reprocessing of spent fuel elements from nuclear reactors (qv) (see Radioactive tracers). 

Krypton and Xenon from Huclear Power Plants. Both xenon and krypton are products of the fission of uranium and plutonium. These gases are present in the spent fuel rods from nuclear power plants in the ratio 1 Kr 4 Xe. Recovered krypton contains ca 6% of the radioactive isotope Kr-85, with a 10.7 year half-life, but all radioactive xenon isotopes have short half-Hves. 

Advanced composites and fiber-reinforced materials are used in sailcloth, speedboat, and other types of boat components, and leisure and commercial fishing gear. A ram id and polyethylene fibers are currentiy used in conveyer belts to collect valuable offshore minerals such as cobalt, uranium, and manganese. Constmction of oil-adsorbing fences made of high performance fabrics is being evaluated in Japan as well as the constmction of other pollution control textile materials for maritime use. For most marine uses, the textile materials must be resistant to biodeterioration and to a variety of aqueous pollutants and environmental conditions. 

The uranium ore from Elliot Lake, Canada, contains yttrium and lanthanides (see Uranium and uranium compounds). In the Jiangxi province of the People s Repubhc of China a large reserve of a rare-earth-containing clay contains over 1,000,000 t of REO. This ore is characterized by having a low cerium content (<5%) but a high content in samarium, europium, terbium, and yttrium compared to the main base REO ores (Table 6). ... 

Laser isotope separation techniques have been demonstrated for many elements, including hydrogen, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sHicon, sulfur, chlorine, titanium, selenium, bromine, molybdenum, barium, osmium, mercury, and some of the rare-earth elements. The most significant separation involves uranium, separating uranium-235 [15117-96-1], from uranium-238 [7440-61-1], (see Uranium and uranium compounds). The... 

Table 1 gives the average metal content of the earth s cmst, ore deposits, and concentrates. With the exceptions of the recovery of magnesium from seawater and alkaU metals from brines, and the solution mining and dump or heap leaching of some copper, gold, and uranium (see Uranium and uranium compounds), most ores are processed through mills. Concentrates are the raw materials for the extraction of primary metals. 

Spent nuclear fuel has fission products, uranium, and transuranic elements. Plans call for permanent disposal in underground repositories. Geological studies are in progress at the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. Until a repository is completed, spent fuel must be stored in water pools or in dry storage casks at nuclear plant sites. 

Uranium-239 [13982-01 -9] has a half-life of 23.5 min neptunium-239 [13968-59-7] has a half-life of 2.355 d. Recycling or reprocessing of spent fuel involves separation of plutonium from uranium and from bulk fission product isotopes (see Nuclearreactors, chemical reprocessing). 

Chemical Separation. A reprocessing facility typically utilizes multiple extraction/reextraction (stripping) cycles for the recovery and purification of uranium and plutonium. For example, a co-decontamination and partitioning cycle is followed by one or more cycles of uranium and plutonium purification. The basic process is illustrated in Figure 3. 

---