Uranium and Zirconium Mass Transfer Testing of 5.5-CM-DIAM Centrifugal Contactors

Abstract

As part of the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program of the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, compact centrifugal contactors were designed and prototypes built for the Breeder Reprocessing Engineering Test (BRET) facility with a throughput capacity of 0.1 t/d of heavy metals. While the construction of BRET has been put on hold indefinitely, development of the 5.5-cm-diam centrifugal contactors has advanced due to the contactor's broad applicability in other areas of fuel reprocessing and liquid-liquid extraction. Due to the short residence time of the process fluids in a centrifugal contactor, it was necessary to measure the mass transfer efficiency for a typical process flowsheet. This was done with depleted uranium and ⁹¹Zr. The results of mass transfer tests with uranium and zirconiun are reported in this paper.