Sono-chemical leaching of uranium
Abstract
A fundamental study on the mechanism of uranium leaching in nitric acid and sulphuric acid media has been carried out to understand the effect of the ultrasound on leaching. The use of ultrasound clearly improves the leaching rate within the studied leach acid media. The enhancement in the leaching rate in the presence of ultrasound is higher with low leach acid concentration of nitric acid (HNO3), and it is high at high leach acid concentration in the case of sulphuric acid (H2SO4) being used as a leachant, when compared to conventional mechanical agitation. The basic reason behind this observed variation is explained on the basis of the reaction mechanism involving the oxidative conversion of acid insoluble tetravalent uranium form to the soluble hexavalent form of uranium in the presence of ultrasound at a faster rate.