Research on Obtaining Gadolinium Oxide from Waste Technologies for Processing of Uranium-gadolinium Containing Materials

Abstract

One of the activities of the Uranium production of JSC "UMP" is the processing of hard-to-open uranium-gadolinium-containing scraps. When processing materials of this type, after their dissolution, the gadolinium fluoride precipitation operation is carried out with the subsequent extraction purification of the obtained uranyl nitrate solutions. At the deposition stage, almost all the gadolinium contained in the scraps is transferred to the GdF₃ precipitate and sent to the tailings dump as part of the solid waste. In order to determine the possibility of obtaining gadolinium oxide from waste processing of uran-gadolinium containing materials, exploratory studies were initiated. In the course of the work, various methods of obtaining gadolinium oxide were tested. A number of experiments were carried out to refine the modes of obtaining gadolinium oxide by the method of two-stage precipitation of oxalate. A technological scheme was developed, according to which a finished product was obtained, suitable for further use in the technology of obtaining uranium-gadolinium tablets of UMP JSC. The scheme consists of the following main operations: dissolution of gadolinium fluoride in a solution of aluminum nitrate, precipitation of gadolinium oxalate, washing of gadolinium oxalate in the first stage of precipitation with a solution of nitric acid, conversion of oxalate to gadolinium hydroxide, dissolution of hydroxide in a solution of nitric acid, re-precipitation of gadolinium oxalate, calcination to gadolinium oxide.