Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) is an intermediate compound used in the production of fuel for nuclear reactors. UF6 is industrially produced by the fluorination of uranium ore concentrates. During this process the impurities initially contained in the ore concentrates are also fluorinated leading to various metal fluorides and oxifluorides which must be separated from the UF6 flow. Several purification techniques are currently used to satisfy the level of high purity required by the international specification 1; and sorption onto a solid sorbant is one of them. Using a MgF2 sorbant, the removal of volatile technetium, neptunium, molybdenum and vanadium fluorides, thereby purifying the UF6 flow, was proved possible and was patented 2. However, we believe that the sorption capacities of MgF2 can be improved in UF6 as both a gas and liquid.This is why our Current work is focusing on KMgF3, as a new sorbant material to take up the challenge to surpass MgF2 performances towards a selection of impurities. While this material has been found to exhibit a high specific surface area when synthesized by a solvothermal method, both the synthetic conditions and thermal treatment of the KMgF3 were adjusted to further increase its sorption performances. The sorption properties of KMgF3 towards specific metal fluorides were then studied both with and without UF6. Its selectivity and sorption capacity will be discussed and compared with those exhibited by MgF2.1ASTM C787-11 Standard specification for uranium hexafluoride for enrichment2 W.R.Golliher,USPatent n� 3,165,376, Jan. 12, 1965

New sorbant for the purification of gas and liquid UF<sub>6</sub>

248th National Meeting (2014)

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New sorbant for the purification of gas and liquid UF6

New sorbant for the purification of gas and liquid UF₆