A Study of the Distribution of Impurities in the Extraction of Uranyl Nitrate with Ether from Aqueous Solutions

Abstract

Early in 1942 it had been found on a laboratory scale that certain impurities such as the Rare Earths were removed by small water washes from an ether solution of Uranyl Nitrate. It was hoped that in the large production units to be constructed that the water soluble impurities would all be washed out by the time the radioactive Thorium had been removed, so that the decrease in radioactivity could be used as an index of the amount of all kinds of impurity remaining in the ether layer. Experience has taught both the production and the laboratory chemist to view with suspicion a process which claims to separate one element from all others in the periodic system with a simple set of manipulations such as an extraction. Furthermore, there is the familiar example of iodide ion which anyone would expect to be oxidized to iodine and then be transferred almost quantitatively to the ether layer from which it would not wash out. It seemed reasonable that other elements or ions would be found which would fail to wash out of the ether layer. Since the objective was the removal of the neutron absorbers whether their danger coefficients were especially highmore » or not, it became important that every possible check on the effectiveness of the extraction method was investigated. Furthemore there was a probability that the concentration of any individual impurity in different batches of raw material would vary over a wide range. The question was raised whether a large increase in the concentration of some ions would either make the washing of the ether layer unsuccessful or uneconomical.« less