Uranium world production

Foreign. The OECD/NEA and IAEA have issued annual reports on world uranium resources, production, and demand since the mid-1960s (2—6). NEA/IAEA data for reasonably assured and estimated additional resources at costs of 80 and 130/kg uranium are given in Table 2 (21). These estimates incorporate data from both former world outside centrally planned economies (WOCA) and non-WOCA nations. A summary of other known uranium resources with and without cost range estimates is provided in Table 3 (22). These resources total about 1.4 x 10 t and include estimates that are not strictly consistent with standard NEA/IAEA definitions. 

The bulk of world vanadium production is derived as a by-product or coproduct ia processiag iron, titanium, and uranium ores, and, to a lesser extent, from phosphate, bauxite, and chromium ores and the ash, fume, or coke from burning or refining petroleum. Total world production of V20 was ca 131 X 10 lbs in 1996. 

World molybdenum production has increased from about 90 metric tons in 1900 — half from Australia and Norway, half from the United States — to 136 tons in 1906, 1364 in 1932 (an order of magnitude increase in 26 years), 10,909 in 1946, and 91,000 tons in 1973. Through the years, molybdenum has been produced in about 30 countries. In 1973, about 60% of the worldwide production was from the United States, 15% from Canada, 15% from the U.S.S.R. and China combined, and 10% from other nations — Chile, Japan, Korea, Norway, and Mexico (King et al. 1973). By 1979, the United States produced about 62% of the world production of 103,000 metric tons, and exported about half, chiefly to western Europe and Japan other major producers in 1979 were Canada, Chile, and the U.S.S.R. (Kummer 1980). In the United States, only three mines in Colorado account for almost 70% of domestic production. Other active molybdenum mining sites in North America are in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and California molybdenum reserves have also been proven in Idaho, Alaska, Pennsylvania, and British Columbia (Kummer 1980). About 65% of domestic molybdenum is recovered from ores rich in molybdenum the rest is a byproduct from ores of copper, tungsten, and uranium (Chappell et al. 1979). 

Country Uranium production (t) Percentage of world production (%)... 

J. D. Parent. A Survey of the United States and Total World Production, Proves Reserves, and Remaining Recoverable Resources of Fossil Fuels and Uranium as of December 31,1977, Institute of Gas Technology, Chicago, March (1979). 

Due to CTBT and other agreements between Russia and the USA to reduce nuclear arsenals, there is a surplus stock of enriched uranium. Enriched uranium can be processed and diluted to produce reactor fuel, displacing natural UF6 manufactured from uranium oxides. As a result, fluorine plants in Russia, France, UK, South Africa and the USA have drastically reduced their fluorine production and attendant consumption of AHF. The nuclear industry is expected to use only 2-3% of total world production of AHF. It is first used in the conversion of U3Og to UF4 and also in the manufacture of fluorine to convert UF4 to UF6. 

Uranium Dioxide Production. The majority of the world s nuclear reactors are fueled with slightly enriched UOg prepared in the form of dense sintered pellets that are encapsulated in small bore tubes of zirconium alloy or stainless steel. Hex at the required enrichment(s) is produced specifically for a given reactor charge and the first process step with the UFg is to convert it to UOg having the desired ceramic-grade quality. This means an oxide which after granulation and pelleting can be sintered quickly and uniformly to pellets of near stoichiometric density. 

UF5 and one step in the conversion of uranium ores to UF is the oxidation of UF4 either by elemental F2 or by CIF3. The nuclear industry remains a major producer of fluorine for this purpose but on a smaller scale fluorine is also used in the chemical industry for the production of SF (a gaseous dielectric which is non-toxic and non-inflammable) and fluorinated organic compounds. The total world production of fluorine is probably between 10 000 and 20 000 ton yr . ... 

There are several areas around the world where the concentration of uranium in the ground is sufficiently high that extraction of it for use as nuclear fuel is economically feasible. Such economic concentrations are called ore. When mined, it yields a mixed uranium oxide product (UjOg). Uraninite or pitchblende is the commonest uranium mineral. 

Although there remain some uncertainties about the amounts of uranium mined in the former Soviet Union in the period between 1945 and 1990, it is nevertheless now possible to produce a rough picture of cumulative world production since fhe end of World War II. Table 10.2 summarizes historical production, with estimates of production in countries where data are not fully available. 

The world production of uranium in 2009 was 50,572 tons, and about two-thirds of this amount came from mines in three countries Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia... 

High-purity scandium oxide (i.e., 99.0 to 99.99 wt.% Sc) is an initial raw material used to produce a metallic scandium. After fluorination of the oxide, pure scandium is then prepared by calciothermic reduction of scandium trifluoride (ScFj) with pure calcium metal. The metallic scandium obtained undergoes subsequent refining by vacuum distillation, which ensures a purity of metal at the level 99.99 to 99.999 wt.% Sc. Tentative annual demand for ultrapure metallic scandium for different fields of application is estimated for the near future at 800 to 1000 kg per year. Total annual world production in 2000 of scandium, excluding China, was about 30 kg. Union Carbide and Johnson Matthey, as well as the research company Boulder, are the main manufacturers of scandium products from thortveitite, wastes of uranium, and tungsten production. 

The world production, counted as uranium, was about 36000 tonnes in 2001. How the production was divided by country is shown in Table 52.2 [52.14]. 

Present annual world production of bauxite is about 70 000 000 ton, which results in the production of 35 000 000 ton of red mud. Many plants throughout the world have been operating for 40 years or more, and the resulting red mud wastes may exceed 1 0000000(X) ton. Assuming an average of 10ppm uranium in this mud, the volume of uranium is very large. The bulk of the radioactive bauxites are in Brazil, Cameroon, Surinam and the U.S.A. 

There was a great business opportunity for any firm that could provide a reliable supply of high-quality molybdenum-99. General Electric (GE) produced most of the world s supply from a reactor in California that had started up in 1971. GE offered n-gamma molybdenum-99. Chalk River could not produce this type of molybdenum, but it could make another type as a fission product of the irradiation of uranium. Fission-product molybdenum-99 had the virtue of being carrier-free - not contaminated with any other non radioactive molybdenum. 

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. 

Uranium production in 1992 of 36,246 t U was only about 63% of world reactor requirements of 57,182 t U the remainder, 20,950 t U, was met from inventory drawdown. The worldwide production shortfall has developed since 1990 when production exceeded reactor requirements by about 1000 t U (27). 

World reactor-related requirements are expected to increase from 57,182 t U in 1992 to about 75,673 t U by the year 2010. Some utiUties are expected to continue to meet their requirements by purchasing or drawing on excess inventory. Annual uranium production should remain below actual requirements until some target level of stocks is reached (27). 

This reaction offers the advantage of a superior neutron yield of in a thermal reactor system. The abiHty to breed fissile from naturally occurring Th allows the world s thorium reserves to be added to its uranium reserves as a potential source of fission power. However, the Th/ U cycle is unlikely to be developed in the 1990s owing both to the more advanced state of the / Pu cycle and to the avadabiHty of uranium. Thorium is also used in the production of the cx-emitting radiotherapeutic agent, Bi, via the production of Th and subsequent decay through Ac (20). 

The electromagnetic separation plant built during World War 11 at Oak Ridge, involved two types of calutrons, alpha and beta. The larger alpha calutrons were used for the enrichment of natural uranium, and the beta calutrons were used for the final separation of U from the pre-enriched alpha product. For the electromagnetic separation process, UO was converted into UCl [10026-10-5] with CCl. The UCl was fed into the calutron for separation. The calutron technique has been used to separate pure samples of and stable isotopes of many other elements. The Y-12 calutron... 

Today, the air oxidation of toluene is the source of most of the world s synthetic benzaldehyde. Both vapor- and Hquid-phase air oxidation processes have been used. In the vapor-phase process, a mixture of air and toluene vapor is passed over a catalyst consisting of the oxides of uranium, molybdenum, or related metals. High temperatures and short contact times are essential to maximize yields. Small amounts of copper oxide maybe added to the catalyst mixture to reduce formation of by-product maleic anhydride. 

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