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US 10,457,558 B2Granted
Method to produce uranium silicides
AssigneeWestinghouse Electric Corp.
InventorsEdward J. Lahoda, Simon Middleburgh
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The method described herein may be characterized as reacting uranium dioxide with carbon to produce uranium carbide, and, reacting the uranium carbide with a silane, a silicon halide, a siloxane, or combinations thereof, and excess hydrogen to produce uranium silicide.
Claims39
A method comprising:
- forming uranium dioxide;
- reacting uranium dioxide with carbon to produce uranium carbide;
- and,
- reacting uranium carbide with a silicon based reactant comprised of a silane, a silicon halide, a siloxane, and combinations thereof, in the presence of excess hydrogen to form a uranium silicide product,
- wherein uranium dioxide is formed by a process selected from the group consisting of an ammonium uranyl carbonate process, an ammonium diuranate process, and an integrated dry route process.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- forming uranium dioxide;
- reacting uranium dioxide with carbon to produce uranium carbide;
- and,
- reacting uranium carbide with a silicon based reactant comprised of a silane, a silicon, halide, a siloxane, and combinations thereof, in the presence of excess hydrogen to form a uranium silicide product;
- wherein the silicon based reactant has the general formula SinX2n+2, where n is an integer from 1 to 6 and X is selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halides, and combinations thereof.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- forming uranium, dioxide;
- reacting uranium dioxide with carbon to produce uranium carbide;
- and,
- reacting uranium carbide with a silicon based, reactant comprised of a silane, a silicon halide, a siloxane, and combinations thereof, in the presence of excess hydrogen to form a uranium silicide product;
- wherein residual carbon is removed by reacting the residual carbon with a silicon halide and excess halide.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- forming uranium dioxide;
- reacting uranium dioxide with carbon to produce uranium carbide;
- and,
- reacting uranium carbide with a silicon based reactant comprised of a silane, a silicon halide, a siloxane, and combinations thereof, in the presence of excess hydrogen to form a uranium silicide product;
- wherein the step of forming the uranium silicide is carried out at temperatures between 500 and 800 K.
2 more elements
A method for producing a uranium silicide nuclear fuel comprising a reaction represented by:
- (1) UF6+H2+2H2O→UO2+6HF;
- (2) one or both of
- (i) UO2+3C→UC+2CO and
- (ii) UO2+2C→UC+CO2;
- and,
- (3) 3UC+one of 2SiX4 or Si2O+2X2→U3Si2+3CX4,
- wherein X is, selected from the group consisting of H, Cl, F, Br, and I and combinations thereof.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.