GB799344A - Method of preparation of uranium chloride and fusible electrolytes containing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

Uranium chloride free from oxygen is produced by introducing into a fused salt bath consisting of one or more of the alkali metal and alkaline earth metal (including magnesium) chlorides, uranium oxide or uranium compounds such as the nitrate, carbonate oxalate, acetate, or other organic salts, which at the temperature of the bath will decompose to give the oxide, and then treating the fused mass with a chlorinating agent, which is preferably gaseous, such as hydrogen chloride, phosgene, carbon tetrachloride, or chlorine in admixture with either carbon monoxide or carbon. The uranium chloride may either be extracted from the melt by conventional techniques, or the melt may be used for the production of uranium by electrolysis. In examples, a eutectic mixture of sodium and potassium chlorides was melted at 700 DEG C. and hydrogen chloride bubbled through the melt. Uranyl nitrate, which may be partially decomposed by prior heating, was added to the melt in small portions, the hydrogen chloride passing through the melt continuously. Alternatively, the sodium and potassium chlorides were mixed with about two thirds of the uranyl nitrate and this mixture was then melted and hydrogen chloride passed in. The remainder of the uranyl nitrate was then added as before.