Dehydration of plutonium or neptunium trichloride hydrate
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorsJerry Foropoulos, Jr., Larry R. Avens, Eddie A. Trujillo
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Abstract
A process of preparing anhydrous actinide metal trichlorides of plutonium or neptunium by reacting an aqueous solution of an actinide metal trichloride selected from the group consisting of plutonium trichloride or neptunium trichloride with a reducing agent capable of converting the actinide metal from an oxidation state of +4 to +3 in a resultant solution, evaporating essentially all the solvent from the resultant solution to yield an actinide trichloride hydrate material, dehydrating the actinide trichloride hydrate material by heating the material in admixture with excess thionyl chloride, and recovering anhydrous actinide trichloride is provided.
Claims10
A process of preparing anhydrous actinide metal trichlorides of plutonium or neptunium comprising:
- reacting an aqueous solution of an actinide metal trichloride selected from the group consisting of plutonium trichloride or neptunium trichloride with a reducing agent capable of converting the actinide metal from an oxidation state of +4 to +3 to yield a resultant solution;
- evaporating essentially all the solvent from the resultant solution to yield an actinide trichloride hydrate material;
- heating the actinide trichloride hydrate material while in admixture with an excess stoichiometric amount of thionyl chloride thereby dehydrating said actinide trichloride hydrate material;
- and,
- recovering anhydrous actinide trichloride.
A process of preparing anhydrous actinide metal trichlorides of plutonium or neptunium comprising:
- heating an actinide trichloride hydrate material while in admixture with excess thionyl chloride thereby dehydrating said actinide trichloride hydrate material;
- and,
- recovering anhydrous actinide trichloride.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.