Process for the treatment of nuclear targets and/or fuels based on metallic aluminium by tetramethylammonium hydroxide solutions
AssigneeCommissariat a l'Energie Atomique
InventorsJean-Philippe Dancausse, Georges Armengol, Serge Caron
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Abstract
The invention relates to a process for the processing of nuclear targets and/or fuels based on metallic aluminium by dissolving with the aid of aqueous tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH) solutions. Dissolving can consist of a total dissolving in a single stage of the core and the can of the nuclear fuel by TMAOH or a decanning of the can by TMAOH, followed by a nitric dissolving of the core. The use of TMAOH eliminates the disadvantages associated with dissolving in a concentrated nitric or sodium medium and decanning with soda and in particular permits the easy vitrification of the effluents produced by the process.
Claims24
Process for the processing of nuclear targets and/or fuels based on metallic aluminium and radioactive materials in metallic form, in which the nuclear targets and/or fuels undergo at least one dissolving operation, characterized in that the dissolving medium comprises tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAOH).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.