Progress in Chemical Treatment of Leu Targets by the Modified Cintichem Process

Presented here are recent experimental results on tests of a modified Cintichem process for producing Mo from low enriched uranium (LEU). Studies were focused in three areas: (1) testing the effects on Mo recovery and purity of dissolving LEU foil in nitric acid alone, rather than in the sulfuric/nitric acid mixture currently used, (2) measuring decontamination factors for radionuclide impurities in each purification step, and (3) testing the effects on processing of adding barrier materials to the LEU metal-foil target. The experimental results show that switching from dissolving the target in the sulfuric/nitric mixture to using nitric acid alone should cause no significant difference in Mo product yield or purity. Further, the results show that overall decontamination factors for gamma emitters in the LEUtarget processing are high enough to meet the purity requirements for the Mo product. The results also show that the selected barrier materials, Cu, Fe, and Ni, do not interfere with Mo recovery and can be removed during chemical processing of the LEU target.