Uranous nitrate production using PtO2 catalyst and H2/H2 gas mixtures

The feasibility of producing near 100% uranous nitrate, the partitioning agent used in the spent fuel reprocessing by Purex process, by catalytically reducing uranyl nitrate with H2 and H2 gas mixtures was extensively studied. As near quantitative reduction of uranyl nitrate could be easily achieved in laboratory scale studies, pilot plant scale reduction of uranyl nitrate was also carried out and five litres of uranyl nitrate of 100 g/1 could be quantitatively reduced in one hour. (author)