Yellow cake product practice

The flow sheets of uranium ore processing plants at present operating throughout the world terminate with the production of yellow cake. The demands of the refineries on the quality of this commodity have become more stringent with time. The impurity content of yellow cake depends to a considerable extent on the nature of the technical operations preceding precipitation. As a rule the purity of the final product is greater when the uranium is precipitated from re-extractants or regenerators consisting of weakly basic resins. An analysis of 80 uranium precipitation flow sheets demonstrates the advantages of using ammonia, while to some extent use is made of caustic soda, magnesium oxide, hydrogen peroxide or calcium oxide; precipitation is carried out in one or two stages at high temperature. Use of a particular chemical is governed by its availability, price, effect on the environment, degree of filtrate utilization, etc. It may be anticipated that the perfecting of precipitation flow sheets will be directed towards achieving maximum concentration of uranium in the solutions before precipitation, reduction in the volume of liquid flows through the equipment, an improvement in the filtration qualities of the precipitate, etc. The paper gives the flow sheet for precipitation of uranium by means of gaseous ammonia from sulphate-carbonate solutions. For drying yellow cake use has been made of spray driers. The dry product is easily sampled and transported. (author)