A study on the oxidation behavior of uranium

When storing depleted uranium wastes, careful handling is required due to their very high oxidation rates. To determine the oxidation mechanism and oxidation rate of depleted uranium wastes, the most important factors to be considered in their treatment, an experiment was carried out by varying the heating rates of the Air-Controlled Oxidizer. The experiment, showed that depleted uranium wastes are pulverized after complete oxidation because of the density difference and then converted to UO2, U3O7, U3O8. The grain size of pulverized powder decrease with increased temperature. (author). 30 refs., 5 tabs., 28 figs