Process for dissolving aluminum for recovering nuclear fuel

• Main Authors: Daniel William E, Rudisill Tracy S, Almond Philip M
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 20.02.2018
• Subjects: CHEMISTRY; CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO WASTEWATERTREATMENT OR WASTE MANAGEMENT; FERROUS OR NON-FERROUS ALLOYS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; METALLURGY; NUCLEAR ENGINEERING; NUCLEAR PHYSICS; NUCLEAR REACTORS; PHYSICS; PRETREATMENT OF RAW MATERIALS; PRODUCTION AND REFINING OF METALS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINSTCLIMATE CHANGE; TREATMENT OF ALLOYS OR NON-FERROUS METALS

A process for controlling the dissolution of a metal in an acid bath is described. The metal may comprise aluminum and the acid bath may contain a metal catalyst that causes the metal to dissolve. In order to control the rate of dissolution and/or the amount of gas evolved during the process, an iron source is added to the bath. In one embodiment, the process can be used to dissolve aluminum contained in spent fuel assemblies for recovering a nuclear fuel, such as uranium.