Decreasing Molybdenum Content in U3O8 of Bandar Abbas Uranium Plant by Stripping, Acidic Sodium Chloride Solution

Molybdenum content in U3O8 is one of the difficulties in uranium oxide production plant, as contaminant. Several methods have been proposed for reducing Molybdenum from U3O8 process circuit. As a few changes in the process circuit of Bandar Abbas Uranium Plant were aimed, the loaded organic solvent containing uranium and molybdenum were stripped with acidic sodium chloride solution. The current 10% Sodium carbonate solution was substituted by 1.2 M NaCl + 0.02 M H2SO4 as a new strip solution. This method decreases Mo contents from 96.94 to 4.17 percent. With the proceeding precipitation and the calcination stages, the Molybdenum amounts in U3O8 was reduced from 6.4 to 0.14 percent.