Uranium treatment

The liquid mine wastes are mainly represented by underground drainage waters (up to 2000 m3/day and even more), as well as low radioactive waste water from uranium treatment plants (from 100 up to 300 m3/day). The uranium isotopes, radium-226, thorium-230, polonium-210, lead-210 are the most dangerous. Their total activity in waste waters reaches often 10-50 Bq/L at the MPC values for natural waters of 0.111 Bq/L. 

There are very few reports in the literature concerning heterogeneous photocatalysis for uranium treatment in water. In our previous review, only one case of photocatalytic reaction on uranium salts was reported (Amadelli et al., 1991). Taking into account the standard reduction potentials, U(VI) can be photocatalytically reduced by Ti02 conduction band electrons to U(V) and then to U(IV) (E° = +0.16 V and +0.58 V, respectively, Bard et al., 1985). However, more reduced U(III) and U(0) forms cannot be generated because of very negative redox potentials (Bard et al., 1985). In addition, U(V) rapidly disproportionates to U(VI) and U(IV), and its chemistry is very complex (Selbin and Ortego, 1969). For example, uranyl... 

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). 

Although the process requires the addition of a phosphate donor, such as glycerol-2-phosphate, it may be a valuable tool for cleaning water contaminated with radionuchdes. An alternative mode of uranium precipitation is driven by sulfate-reducing bacteria such as Desulfovibrio desulfuricans which reduce U(VI) to insoluble U(IV). When combined with bicarbonate extraction of contaminated soil, this may provide an effective treatment for removing uranium from contaminated soil (85). 

Fluorine was first produced commercially ca 50 years after its discovery. In the intervening period, fluorine chemistry was restricted to the development of various types of electrolytic cells on a laboratory scale. In World War 11, the demand for uranium hexafluoride [7783-81-5] UF, in the United States and United Kingdom, and chlorine trifluoride [7790-91 -2J, CIF, in Germany, led to the development of commercial fluorine-generating cells. The main use of fluorine in the 1990s is in the production of UF for the nuclear power industry (see Nuclearreactors). However, its use in the preparation of some specialty products and in the surface treatment of polymers is growing. 

Ura.nium, The hydrometallurgical treatment of uranium ores is a concentration and purification process. Typical ore grade is 0.1—0.5% U Og, and pregnant solutions contain ca 1 kg/m of U Og. The dissolution requires the presence of an oxidant, either oxygen or a ferric salt. 

Nuclear Applications. Powder metallurgy is used in the fabrication of fuel elements as well as control, shielding, moderator, and other components of nuclear-power reactors (63) (see Nuclearreactors). The materials for fuel, moderator, and control parts of a reactor are thermodynamically unstable if heated to melting temperatures. These same materials are stable under P/M process conditions. It is possible, for example, to incorporate uranium or ceramic compounds in a metallic matrix, or to produce parts that are similar in the size and shape desired without effecting drastic changes in either the stmcture or surface conditions. OnlyHttle post-sintering treatment is necessary. 

The neutrons in a research reactor can be used for many types of scientific studies, including basic physics, radiological effects, fundamental biology, analysis of trace elements, material damage, and treatment of disease. Neutrons can also be dedicated to the production of nuclear weapons materials such as plutonium-239 from uranium-238 and tritium, H, from lithium-6. Alternatively, neutrons can be used to produce radioisotopes for medical diagnosis and treatment, for gamma irradiation sources, or for heat energy sources in space. 

Sodium nitrate is also used in formulations of heat-transfer salts for he at-treatment baths for alloys and metals, mbber vulcanization, and petrochemical industries. A mixture of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate is used to capture solar energy (qv) to transform it into electrical energy. The potential of sodium nitrate in the field of solar salts depends on the commercial development of this process. Other uses of sodium nitrate include water (qv) treatment, ice melting, adhesives (qv), cleaning compounds, pyrotechnics, curing bacons and meats (see Food additives), organics nitration, certain types of pharmaceutical production, refining of some alloys, recovery of lead, and production of uranium. 

The properties of hydrated titanium dioxide as an ion-exchange (qv) medium have been widely studied (51—55). Separations include those of alkaH and alkaline-earth metals, zinc, copper, cobalt, cesium, strontium, and barium. The use of hydrated titanium dioxide to separate uranium from seawater and also for the treatment of radioactive wastes from nuclear-reactor installations has been proposed (56). 

Leaching. Treatment with suitable solvents (acids or alkaUes) converts uranium contained in the ore to water-soluble species. The uranium is... 

This book presents a unified treatment of the chemistry of the elements. At present 112 elements are known, though not all occur in nature of the 92 elements from hydrogen to uranium all except technetium and promethium are found on earth and technetium has been detected in some stars. To these elements a further 20 have been added by artificial nuclear syntheses in the laboratory. Why are there only 90 elements in nature Why do they have their observed abundances and why do their individual isotopes occur with the particular relative abundances observed Indeed, we must also ask to what extent these isotopic abundances commonly vary in nature, thus causing variability in atomic weights and possibly jeopardizing the classical means of determining chemical composition and structure by chemical analysis. 

Compounds with Sc, Y, lanthanoids and actinoids are of three types. Those with composition ME have the (6-coordinated) NaCl structure, whereas M3E4 (and sometimes M4E3) adopt the body-centred thorium phosphide structure (Th3P4) with 8-coordinated M, and ME2 are like ThAsi in which each Th has 9 As neighbours. Most of these compounds are metallic and those of uranium are magnetically ordered. Full details of the structures and properties of the several hundred other transition metal-Group 15 element compounds fall outside the scope of this treatment, but three particularly important structure types should be mentioned because of their widespread occurrence and relation to other structure types, namely C0AS3,... 

The reaction is a sensitive one, but is subject to a number of interferences. The solution must be free from large amounts of lead, thallium (I), copper, tin, arsenic, antimony, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium, and from elements in sufficient quantity to colour the solution, e.g. nickel. Metals giving insoluble iodides must be absent, or present in amounts not yielding a precipitate. Substances which liberate iodine from potassium iodide interfere, for example iron(III) the latter should be reduced with sulphurous acid and the excess of gas boiled off, or by a 30 per cent solution of hypophosphorous acid. Chloride ion reduces the intensity of the bismuth colour. Separation of bismuth from copper can be effected by extraction of the bismuth as dithizonate by treatment in ammoniacal potassium cyanide solution with a 0.1 per cent solution of dithizone in chloroform if lead is present, shaking of the chloroform solution of lead and bismuth dithizonates with a buffer solution of pH 3.4 results in the lead alone passing into the aqueous phase. The bismuth complex is soluble in a pentan-l-ol-ethyl acetate mixture, and this fact can be utilised for the determination in the presence of coloured ions, such as nickel, cobalt, chromium, and uranium. 

Treatment of UCI4 with the lithium complex obtained from dicyclohexylcar-bodiimide followed by crystallization from pyridine afforded a dinuclear uranium(rV) oxalamidinate complex in the form of dark green crystals in 94% yield (Scheme 191). The same compound could also be obtained by first reducing UCI4 to LiUCli (or UQs+LiCl) followed by reductive dimerization of di(cyclo-hexyl)carbodiimide as shown in Scheme 191. The molecular structure of this first oxalamidinato complex of an actinide element is depicted in Figure 31. ° ... 

Biological activity can be used in two ways for the bioremediation of metal-contaminated soils to immobilize the contaminants in situ or to remove them permanently from the soil matrix, depending on the properties of the reduced elements. Chromium and uranium are typical candidates for in situ immobilization processes. The bioreduction of Cr(VI) and Ur(VI) transforms highly soluble ions such as CrO and UO + to insoluble solid compounds, such as Cr(OH)3 and U02. The selenate anions SeO are also reduced to insoluble elemental selenium Se°. Bioprecipitation of heavy metals, such as Pb, Cd, and Zn, in the form of sulfides, is another in situ immobilization option that exploits the metabolic activity of sulfate-reducing bacteria without altering the valence state of metals. The removal of contaminants from the soil matrix is the most appropriate remediation strategy when bioreduction results in species that are more soluble compared to the initial oxidized element. This is the case for As(V) and Pu(IV), which are transformed to the more soluble As(III) and Pu(III) forms. This treatment option presupposes an installation for the efficient recovery and treatment of the aqueous phase containing the solubilized contaminants. 

---