INVESTIGADORES
BOHE Ana Ester
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Chlorination applied to the separation of metals
Autor/es:
GEORGINA DE MICCO; FABIOLA JULIETA ALVAREZ; ANA ESTER BOHÉ; DANIEL MIGUEL PASQUEVICH
Lugar:
San Diego, California-USA
Reunión:
Simposio; SOHN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ADVANCED PROCESSING OF METALS AND MATERIALS: PRINCIPLES, TECHNOLOGIES AND INDUSTRIAL PRACTICE; 2006
Institución organizadora:
TMS
Resumen:
The National Commission of Atomic Energy is investigating a suitable physicochemical process
for the conditioning of spent nuclear fuel and treatment of the scrap of research reactors of the
Al-UxSiy type. A possible way of processing is through dry chlorination of the cladding with the
purpose of selective separation of the aluminium from the remaining elements such as Fe, Ni,
Zn, Cu, etc. transforming them into volatile chlorides. Some important advantages of this method
are the thermal stability of the chlorides that allow the easy separation of the halides by physical
methods and the low volume of radioactive waste generated. The interactions in the following
systems were studied in the range of temperature between 150º-500°C: Al-Fe, Al-Ni, Al-Cu, Al-
Zn, Cu-Zn and the pure metals. We found that the reactivity was different depending on if the
elements were alloyed or separated. The separation factors of the systems under study were
determined. Nickel is perfectly separated from aluminium for all temperatures, whereas good
conditions for copper separation were achieved below 400ºC. In the case of iron, complete
isolation was never attained. However, by decreasing temperature to 150ºC it is possible to
obtain aluminium chloride with less iron content. The separation of zinc from the product was
also difficult. It was detected that zinc chloride volatilization decreases when other chlorides
were present, for example cooper chlorides. In the Cu-Zn alloy, zinc chlorides remained in the
condensed product due to interactions with copper. The samples were characterized by scanning-
electron microscopy (SEM), X ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic absorption.