Russia is one of the main uranium producers and suppliers worldwide. Uranium is widely used in nuclear power plants, but few people know how this element is mined and obtained.
Instructions
Step 1
Like other metals, uranium is mined in the bowels of the Earth. Somewhere this process is completely automated, and the workers can only press buttons and monitor the operation of the equipment, but in many places the rocks containing this chemical element are mined manually in mines or quarries, using explosives and then transporting pieces of ore to the place of its further processing.
Step 2
After that, the rock is crushed and mixed with water. This is done so that unnecessary heavy impurities settle to the bottom faster and can be removed. Work continues with lighter secondary uranium minerals.
Step 3
At the next stage, using acid or alkaline leaching, uranium is transferred into solution (the reagent is selected depending on the valence of the element). After that, uranium can be isolated directly. For this, methods of ion exchange and extraction are used. In the course of a chain of successive redox reactions, the raw material is purified from other cations present in it, which sometimes can behave like uranium, but in fact are harmful impurities. Thanks to the use of extraction and ion exchange techniques, uranium can be isolated even from ores that contain a small amount of this chemical element.
Step 4
To purify uranium from barium, hafnium and cadmium, it is placed in a concentrated solution of nitric acid, after which the resulting substance undergoes several additional purifications. Then uranium is crystallized, calcined slowly and treated with hydrogen. As a result, the compound UO2 is formed.
Step 5
The formed oxide is exposed to dry hydrogen fluoride at an elevated temperature. In the last stage, a ready-to-use uranium metal is obtained by treatment with magnesium or calcium.
