Technical experiences in an engineering-scale facility for uranium fluorination studies

In the research program of power reactor fuel reprocessing by fluoride volatility process, an engineering-scale facility for uranium fluorination has been operated batchwise and semi-continuously since 1969 in Fuel Reprocessing Laboratory, JAERI, to establish the techniques of handling kilogram quantities of fluorine and uranium hexafluoride and to obtain engineering data on the uranium fluidized-bed fluorination. The experiences gained with the facility are described, giving some evaluations and recommendations for the equipment design, its performance and operation of the system. (auth.)