Described are methods for the recovery of uranium from uranium hexafluoride dissolved directly into ionic liquids.

Disclosed is a system for sensing a UF.sub.6 gas leak in a nuclear fuel manufacturing process. The system is configured to sense whether or not there is a UF.sub.6 gas leak by optically detecting UO.sub.2F.sub.2 in a solid state generated due to a reaction with outside air. This allows prevention of damage to a detection apparatus by means of sensing in a non-contact manner whether or not there is a UF.sub.6 gas leak. Further, the system extends the mechanical life of and reduces the maintenance and repair costs for the detection apparatus.

Described are methods for the recovery of uranium from uranium hexafluoride dissolved directly into ionic liquids.

Described are methods for the recovery of uranium from uranium hexafluoride dissolved directly into ionic liquids.

Described are methods for the recovery of uranium from uranium hexafluoride dissolved directly into ionic liquids.

A system for sensing a UF.sub.6 gas leak in a nuclear fuel manufacturing process is proposed. The system is configured to sense whether or not there is a UF.sub.6 gas leak by optically detecting UO.sub.2F.sub.2 in a solid state generated due to a reaction with outside air, and thus to allow prevention of damage to a detection apparatus by means of sensing in a non-contact manner whether or not there is a UF.sub.6 gas leak, and to realize extension of mechanical life and reduction of the maintenance and repair cost for the detection apparatus.

Embodiments of the disclosure relate to a treatment method and a treatment apparatus for a UF.sub.6 heel, using a gas phase reaction. A specific treatment method includes (1) vaporizing the UF.sub.6 heel, (2) manufacturing solid phase UO.sub.2F.sub.2 by using UF.sub.6 gas vaporized at step (1), (3) separating the solid phase UO.sub.2F.sub.2 and by-product gas from each other, and (4) separating hydrogen fluoride from the by-product gas. According to the disclosure, stabilization of a reconversion process and the quality of UO.sub.2 powder may be improved by manufacturing the solid phase UO.sub.2F.sub.2, which is an intermediate of the UO.sub.2 powder, through the UF.sub.6 heel treatment, and the high cost of radioactive waste disposal is reduced by minimizing the UF.sub.6 heel to be less than 0.5 kg.

This disclosure describes systems and methods for removing uranium hexafluoride (UF.sub.6) and/or other uranium fluoride (uranium fluorides identified herein generally as UF.sub.x) gases from a hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas stream.

Depleted uranium hexafluoride (UF.sub.6) may be used as a propellant in an electric thruster. An electric thrusters may be propelled with a propellant including such depleted uranium hexafluoride, e.g., in a range of from 0.2 and 0.4% of .sup.235U. The propelling with such a propellant may be conducted in outer space. The propelling may include producing cations and anions without two distinct propellants. The propelling may include, for example, a changing orbit, reorienting a satellite, interplanetary journeying, and/or avoiding an object in space.

A method for treating process distillate heavies produced during uranium fluoride purification is described. The heavies contain primarily uranium hexafluoride, UF.sub.6, and molybdenum oxytetrafluoride, MoOF.sub.4. The uranium hexafluoride is removed via distillation at reduced pressure leaving essentially MoOF.sub.4 containing <0.1% of residual uranium hexafluoride. This mixture is hydrolyzed in water, then treated with a solution of sodium hydroxide until a pH of at least 7.5 is reached. The precipitated sodium diuranate and sodium fluoride are removed by filtration. The filtrate is reacted with calcium chloride to precipitate the molybdenum values as calcium molybdate containing trace quantities of calcium fluoride.