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Leaching of uranium and 226 ra from low‐level radioactive waste from port hope, ontario
Author(s) -
Nirdosh Inderjit
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450770311
Subject(s) - nitric acid , chemistry , uranium , leaching (pedology) , nuclear chemistry , boric acid , radiochemistry , hydrochloric acid , sodium , radium , potassium , inorganic chemistry , materials science , metallurgy , organic chemistry , soil science , soil water , environmental science
Uranium and radium were leached from a low‐level radioactive soil sample neutralized with limestone from Port Hope, ON, in single stage and multistage leaching tests. The leachants used were alkaline EDTA, sodium citrate, sodium potassium tartrate, acidic ferric chloride, hydrochloric acid, nitric acid and hydrochloric or nitric acid plus boric acid mixtures. All leaching tests except the two‐stage acid leachings proved ineffective in yielding leach residues with low residual 226 Ra concentrations of < 100 pCi/g. Leaching with 4 mol/L HNO 3 in the first stage followed by treatment with 4 mol/L HNO 3 plus 0.05 mol/L boric acid in the second stage proved effective and gave a leach residue with 85 pCi/g 226 Ra and 16 ppm uranium.