The exploration on the new process of hydrofluorination of uranium dioxide

The optimum treatment of the reaction conditions were achieved based on the kinetic data of the hydrofluorination of uranium dioxide (material obtained from uranyl nitrate by one step denitration-reduction process) and the flow characteristic of reactor. A new process is proposed that is the stirred bed (exhaust gas section) in series with fluidized bed (production section). The optimum design and experimental study of operation conditions of the stirred bed reactor have been completed. The results of hot modelling test of the stirred bed reactor showed that the conversion of UO2 to UF4 in the exit stream was 47∼50% and the hydrogen fluoride remaining in the exhaust gas was less than 5%. Comparision with the circuit of two fluidized beds in series showed that the conversion of stirred bed was nearly same as the first fluidized bed but the hydrogen fluoride remaining in the exhaust gas was considerably decreased