Synthesis of thorium tetrafluoride (ThF4) by ammonium hydrogen difluoride (NH4HF2)

Bahri, Che Nor Aniza Che Zainul; Ismail, Aznan Fazli; Majid, Amran Ab.

doi:10.1016/j.net.2018.12.023

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…In addition, thorium is also more abundant than uranium and can thus satisfy the world energy demands for a longer time. According to worldwide statistics, the total confirmed uranium reserves were estimated at 7 million tons, while the projected thorium reserves were approximately 10 million tons 1‐4 . As such, thorium is generally accepted as a technically viable alternative to uranium in light of a potentially severe uranium resource shortage in the event of nuclear power renaissance 1,2,5 …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A neutronic investigation of tristructural isotropic‐duplex fuel in a high‐temperature reactor prismatic seed‐and‐blanket fuel block configuration with reduced power peaking

2021

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Summary This paper presents the neutronic analysis of a tristructural isotropic (TRISO)‐duplex fuel loaded into the high‐temperature reactor (HTR) prismatic fuel block designs for a seed‐and‐blanket (S&B) reactor model. The selected fuel block design is the simplified model of a representative fuel configuration for the gas turbine–module helium reactor (GT‐MHR) and high‐temperature engineering test reactor (HTTR). The duplex fuel pellet comprises of UO2 as the seed and ThO2 as the blanket and uses the TRISO fuels. Monte Carlo N‐particle extended (MCNPX) simulations were conducted to analyze the power and neutron flux distributions of the reference fuel block and that of the TRIOS‐loaded duplex fuel designs. Standard neutronic parameters were computed, such as burnup‐dependent infinite multiplication factors (kinf), average block spectrum, and fissile inventory. It was discovered that while the S&B model could attain the highest burnup and the longest cycle duration, its power peaking was more than threefolds than that of the reference model at the beginning of the cycle (BOC). The results also show that the “Duplex‐2” model could reduce its power peaking by 24% through the integration of S&B arrangement with the duplex rods. It is noted that spatial distribution of the UO2 seed and 235U enrichment are the chief determining factors in the power optimization of the heterogeneous HTR prismatic fuel blocks loaded with thorium.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A neutronic investigation of tristructural isotropic‐duplex fuel in a high‐temperature reactor prismatic seed‐and‐blanket fuel block configuration with reduced power peaking

2021

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“…Thorium is one of the few fertile elements used in a nuclear power plant. In fact, thorium fuel cycle was initially pursued to prevent natural uranium shortages in the event of a projected rapid growth in nuclear power 26‐28 . This is due to the amount of naturally existing thorium is excessively more abundant than uranium with the total confirmed uranium reserve worldwide was estimated at 7 million tons while speculated thorium reserves was about 10 million tons.…”

Section: Thorium‐fueled Reactormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is due to the amount of naturally existing thorium is excessively more abundant than uranium with the total confirmed uranium reserve worldwide was estimated at 7 million tons while speculated thorium reserves was about 10 million tons. Therefore, there should be sufficient thorium available to meet the increasing demand for energy worldwide 27,28 . In addition, uranium supply was expected to be depleted within 80 years unless new sources of uranium, such as seawater uranium, could economically be extractable 29,30 .…”

Section: Thorium‐fueled Reactormentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of the microheterogeneous thoria‐urania fuel for micro‐sized high temperature reactors

2020

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Summary This paper presents a systematic review of the micro‐modular thorium‐fueled high temperature reactors (HTR) loaded with duplex fuel pellet design. Specifically, each unique criterion of the design is discussed separately in an attempt to understand the combined advantages of the proposed reactor. Micro modular HTRs have great potential as a source of electricity or industrial heat in the future. The use of thorium not only improves its economic performance and safety, but also prolongs its operation. Nevertheless, the traditional seed‐and‐blanket configuration would not be able to maximize the thorium fuel burnup. As such, a new tristructural‐isotopic (TRISO) fuel based on duplex pellet designs were proposed instead. It should be noted that these duplex pellets were not practical for pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology due to its uneven power distribution which possibly leads to a very high local pellet temperature. However, this unorthodox inherent characteristics of the duplex pellets may actually suit the HTR burnup profile better due to its substantially higher thermal margin ‐ thus possibly enabling a relatively long operation of the HTR. The paper shall thereby provide a reasonably sound justification for the detailed technical investigations of the proposed reactor design.

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“…The reactions of UO 2 and U 3 O 8 with NH 4 HF 2 (ABF) lead to several uranium fluoride compounds, respectively ((NH 4 ) 4 UF 8 , (NH 4 ) 2 UF 6 , UF 4 ) , and ((NH 4 ) 3 UO 2 F 5 and UO 2 F 2 ). , These reactions have been well studied for bulk materials but not for well-defined micromaterials. Due to the importance of ABF in actinide synthetic chemistry − and uranium oxides in the nuclear industry, here we expand our efforts and investigate the preparation of ms, mr, and mp uranium fluoride micromaterials via the reaction of UO 2 ms and U 3 O 8 ms, mr, and mp with SBF and ABF.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tailoring Triuranium Octoxide into Multidimensional Uranyl Fluoride Micromaterials

Jang,

Poineau

2024

ACS Omega

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Uranium microstructured materials with controlled size and shape are relevant to the nuclear industry and have found applications as targets for medical isotope production, fuels for nuclear reactors, standards for nuclear forensics, and energy sources for space exploration. Until now, most studies at the microscale have focused on uranium microspheres (oxides, nitrides, carbides, and fluorides), while micromaterials of uranium halides, carbides, and pnictides with other morphologies are largely unknown. A promising method to shape the morphology of uranium micromaterials is the replacement of O by F atoms in oxide materials using a solid−gas reaction. Here, with the aim to elaborate unexplored uranium fluoride micromaterials, the fluorination of uranium oxide (U 3 O 8 and UO 2 ) microspheres (ms), microrods (mr), and microplates (mp) in an autoclave at 250 °C with HF (g) (produced from the thermal decomposition of silver bifluoride (SBF)) and with ammonium bifluoride (ABF) was evaluated. We show that the reactions between U 3 O 8 mr and U 3 O 8 mp and SBF provided the most efficient way to elaborate mr and mp UO 2 F 2 micromaterials in a high yield (∼90%). The resulting UO 2 F 2 mr (length: 3−20 μm) and UO 2 F 2 mp (width: 1−7.5 μm) exhibited a well-defined geometry that was identical to that of the U 3 O 8 precursors. Agglomerated (NH 4 ) 3 UO 2 F 5 and UO 2 F 2 ms (2−3.5 μm) were prepared from the reaction of U 3 O 8 ms with ABF. It is noted that the reaction of UO 2 ms with SBF and ABF did not provide any uranium fluoride micromaterials. The successful preparation of uranium fluoride microstructures (ms, mr, and mp) developed here opens the way to novel actinide fluoride micromaterials.

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Synthesis of thorium tetrafluoride (ThF4) by ammonium hydrogen difluoride (NH4HF2)

Cited by 25 publications

References 7 publications

A neutronic investigation of tristructural isotropic‐duplex fuel in a high‐temperature reactor prismatic seed‐and‐blanket fuel block configuration with reduced power peaking

A neutronic investigation of tristructural isotropic‐duplex fuel in a high‐temperature reactor prismatic seed‐and‐blanket fuel block configuration with reduced power peaking

Review of the microheterogeneous thoria‐urania fuel for micro‐sized high temperature reactors

Tailoring Triuranium Octoxide into Multidimensional Uranyl Fluoride Micromaterials

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