RECOVERY OF U FROM PYROLYTIC CARBON-COATED UC$sub 2$ SPHEROIDS

100% recovery of uranium from pyrolytic carboncoated spheroids of uranium dicarbide was accomplished by an aqueous electrolytic process at the small scale laboratory level. This result was obtained in a system which circulated 1 molar nitric acid through a thin bed of the spheres. The bed was supported between a glass frit and the anode, with which the bed was in contact. The anode was a spiral of platinum wire; the cathode was a grid of tantalum wire. Current density was about 0.2 the average particle size of 150 microns. Initial flow rate was about 1.3 ml/cm/sup 2//sec. Reaction temperature was 72 to 82 deg C; time was 15 hours. At 1/5 the above current density and at the same teraperature, recovery was smaller and was independent of concentration of nitric acid over the range 1 to 4 molar; also recovery in 1 molar dramonium nitrate was about the sarie as in 1 molar HNO/sub 3/. About a 100-fold increase in recovery was obtained by going from a convection stirred cell at 90 deg C to the pumped type of cell at 54 deg C using ammonium nitrate as the electrolyte. (auth