PRODUCTION OF URANIUM OXIDE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a means for facilitating the control of reaction in a process for converting metallic uranium into uranium oxide powder in dry state. SOLUTION: Uranium oxide powder is produced by reacting metallic uranium with oxygen at a high temperature. In the above process, metallic uranium block or powder is dissolved or suspended in a low-melting metal, air or oxygen gas is blown into the molten mixture to convert the metallic uranium into uranium oxide the uranium oxide is separated from the low-melting metal and the separated uranium oxide is recovered. When cadmium is used as the low-melting metal, the separation of the metal becomes easy because the specific gravity of uranium oxide is higher than that of cadmium.