The Study of the Feeding and Conveying of UNH Crystal

Yamasaki, Kazuhiko*; Chikazawa, Takahiro*; Tamaki, Yoshihisa*

Crystallization procedure is considered to have an adaptability to new reprocessing process based on the PUREX process because it has an advantage in recovering rather pure uranium from contaminated uranium solution without any reagents. Up to now, a small-scale uranium test has been performed to confirm an applicability of crystallization.Hydrated uranyl nitrate (UNH) crystal from crystallization procedure is fed to the conversion process into UO2 for the fabrication of nuclear fuel. UNH crystal as feed material has the advantage over UNH solution because any reagents aren't needed in the conversion process. Therefore we will develop an apparatus for storing and conveying UNH crystal to the conversion process. Flowability of UNH crystal is very important to design the apparatus. Carr's fluidity index is one of the most common expressions for the flowability of powders.In this study, we estimated Carr's fluidity index of UNH crystal. Based on the Carr's fluidity index, we investigated the adaptability of the apparatus to UNH crystal.