• Economic and Environmental Geology
• /
• v.17 no.4
• /
• pp.289-298
• /
• 1984

Uraniferous black slates of the Okchon sequence occur in Koesan (northeast) through Miwon-Boun (middle) to the southwest off Taejon (southwest) within the Okchon fold belt. The Uraniferous balck slates in the southwest off Taejon are particularly well developed in Chubu (northeast) and Moksso-ri (middle) areas whereas they are less developed in Jinsan (southwest) area. The uraniferous beds range from less than a meter to 40 meters in thickness and range from less than 0.02% $U_3O_8$ (cut-off-grade) to 0.05% $U_3O_8$ in the southwestern district off Taejon. Electron microprobe analysis of uranium-minerals found in graphitic slate samples enables to estimate their major compositions semi-quantitatively so that uraninite, ferro-uranophane and chlopinite are tentatively identified. Uranium-minerals are closely associated with carbon and metal sulfides. Correlation analysis of trace element concentrations revealed that U and F.C., and U and Mo are lineary correlative respectively and their correlation coefficients are positively high whereas those of U and V, U and Mn, and U and Zr are negatively low, implying that uranium mineralization has been closely related with concentrations of carbon and molybdenum. Stable isotope analyses of pyrite sulfur range widely from +11.5% to -23.3% in ${\delta}^{34}S$ values whereas those of graphite carbon fall within a narrow range between -23.3% and -28.9% in ${\delta}^{13}C$ values. The wide range of ${\delta}^{34}S$ values suggests that the sulfur could be of meteoric origin rather than of igneous source. The narrow range of ${\delta}^{13}C$ values, which are close to those of coal, indicates that the graphite is organic carbon in origin. Therefore, it is concluded that the uranium mineralization in the Okchon sequence took place primarily in sedimentary environment rich in organic matter and sulfide ion, both of which served as the reducing agents to convert soluble uranyl complex to insoluble uranium dioxide.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.30-44
• /
• 2011

This review describes the involvement of different microorganisms for the recovery of uranium from the ore. Mainly Acidithiobacillus forrooxidans, Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans and Leptospirillum ferrooxidans are found to be the most widely used bacteria in the bioleaching process of uranium. The bioleaching of uranium generally follows indirect mechanism in which bacteria provide the ferric iron required to oxidize $U^{4+}$. Commercial applications of bioleaching have been incorporated for extracting valuable metals, due to its favorable process economics and reduced environmental problems compared to conventional metal recovery processes such as smelting. At present the uranium is recovered through main bioleaching techniques employed by heap, dump and in situ leaching. Process development has included recognition of the importance of aeration of bioheaps, and improvements in stirred tank reactor design and operation. Concurrently, knowledge of the key microorganisms involved in these processes has advanced, aided by advances in molecular biology to characterize microbial populations.

• Resources Recycling
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.64-74
• /
• 2021

The importance of uranium metal is growing day by day in light of its increasing global demand for fulfilling societal needs through atomic power programs. Considering the high demand for uranium, it is necessary to find innovative hydrometallurgical techniques to separate uranium from other associated elements, especially vanadium. This study deals with the separation of uranium(VI) and vanadium(V) from sulfuric acid solutions using commercial amine-based extractants diluted in kerosene. The concentrations of the sulfuric acid solutions ranged from 0.005 to 5.0 mol/L. The effect of extractant concentration ranging from 0.005 to 0.2 mol/L was studied. The temperature was maintained at 25℃ and the experiment was performed for 30 min at an aqueous: organic phase ratio of 1 (A:O = 1:1). The calculated separation factors (SFs) are presented and comparisons are made among all the experiments.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.8 no.1
• /
• pp.41-48
• /
• 2010

Uranium deposits from an electrorefining process contain about 30% salt. In order to recover pure uranium and transform it into an ingot, the salts have to be removed from the uranium deposits. Major process variables for the salt distillation process of the uranium deposits are hold temperature and vacuum pressure. Effects of the variables on the salt removal efficiency were studied in the previous study[1]. By applying the Hertz-Langmuir relation to the salt evaporation of the uranium deposits, the evaporation coefficients were obtained at the various conditions. The operational conditions for achieving above 99% salt removal were deduced. The salt distilled uranium deposits tend to form the eutectic melt with iron, nickel, chromium for structural material of salt evaporator. In this study, we investigated the hold temperature limitation in order to prevent the formation of the eutetic melt between urnaium and other metals. The reactions between the uranium metal and stainless steel were tested at various conditions. And for enhancing the evaporation rate of the salt and the efficient recovery of the distilled salt, the thermal analysis of the salt distiller was conducted by using commercial CFX software. From the thermal analysis, the effect of Ar gas flow on the evaporation of the salt was studied.

• Journal of Advanced Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.4 no.4
• /
• pp.431-436
• /
• 2011

This study was carried out to reduce the problem during distillation process, which separate U, TRU (TRans Uranium) metal electro deposit, Cd and LiCl-KCl eutectic salt generating from LCC (Liquid Cadmium Cathode) electro winning process. The cadmium recovering apparatus was manufactured to separate for each metal using solid-liquid separation method. The apparatus consists of the first sieve for the separation of U and TRU metal electrodeposit, the second sieve for the separation of LiCl-KCl eutectic salt, cadmium collection basket, and a heating furnace. In addition, the size of each sieve is 2 mm to 3 mm. In this experiment, a metal wire was employed to replace TRU metal electrodeposit and U, which exist actually in a LCC crucible. In the solid state, The LiCl-KCl is separated at 340℃ at which the solid and the liquid of the remaining cadmium and LiCl-KCl eutectic salt coexists in each, after the metal wire separated at 500℃. As a result, it seems that it would be beneficial to set the processing condition in the distillation process with the additional treatment process of cadmium and LiCl-KCl eutectic salt.

• Journal of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Waste Technology(JNFCWT)
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.179-186
• /
• 2006

Chemical wastes are generated from nuclear facilities and R&D laboratories, but the uranium concentration in the final dried cake is evaluated into 11.2 Bq/g, which exceeds the exemption level of 10 Bq/g for each U isotopes, so the cake is categorized into a radioactive waste. Acid dissolution was applied to extract uranium from the waste sludge, and uranium adsorption on the dissolved solution was experimented by using IRN-77 and Diphosil bead. A large amount of resin was required to get above 80% of uranium removal, which was found to be due to a large amount of metal ions simultaneously dissolved from the precipitates with uranium. As an alternative method, acid dissolution is applied to the dewatered wet cake of the sludge, and the natural evaporation method is adopted for the dissolved solution. The uranium concentration of the dissolved solution was estimated to be 6.97E-01 Bq/ml, and the specific activity of the final waste sheets is evaluated to be 4.3 Bq/g. These results lead to the suggestion that the application of acid dissolution to the wet cake and the natural evaporation for the dissolved solution is an effective treatment method for chemical wastes containing uranium.

• Analytical Science and Technology
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.285-292
• /
• 1995

Uranium has variable oxidation states(${UO_2}^{+2}$, $UO^{+2}$, $U^{+4}$, $U^{+3}$) and 1-(2-Pyridylazo)-2-naphthol forms a very stable chelate with Uranium(${UO_2}^{+2}$). The determination method of Uranium(${UO_2}^{+2}$) in 0.1M Borate buffer(pH 7.10) has been investigated by adsorptive stripping voltammetry. The optimum conditions were PAN concentration of $5{\times}10^{-7}M$, accumulation potential of 0.00V(vs. Ag/AgCl) and accumulation time of 120sec. The calibration curve was linear over the range of $5{\sim}60{\mu}g/L$ and the various metal ions did not interfere with the determination Uranium(${UO_2}^{+2}$) except Cu(II) and Co(II).

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 2004.10a
• /
• pp.811-811
• /
• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 2002.05a
• /
• pp.288.2-288
• /
• 2002

• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
• /
• 2005.05a
• /
• pp.269-270
• /
• 2005