User:Quasestio Puer

When Uranium is mined out of the ground it does not contain enough pure uranium per pound to be used. The process of milling is how the cycle extracts the usable uranium from the rest of the materials, also known as tailings. To begin the milling process the ore is either ground into fine dust with water or crushed into dust without water ^[1]. Once the Materials have been physically treated, they then begin the process of being chemically treated by being doused in acids. Acids used include hydrochloric and nitrous acids but the most common acids are sulfuric acids. Alternatively if the material that the ore is made of is particularly resistant to acids then an alkaline is used instead ^[2]. After being treated chemically the uranium particles are dissolved into the solution used to treat them. This solution is then filtered until what solids remain are separated from the liquids that contain the uranium. The undesirable solids are disposed of as tailings ^[3]. Once the solution has removed the tailings the process needs to extract the uranium from the rest of the liquid solution, this occurs in one of two ways; solvent exchange or ion exchange. In solvent exchange a solvent is mixed into the solution wherein the dissolved uranium binds to the solvent and floats to the top while the other dissolved materials remain in the mixture. During ion exchange a different material is mixed into the solution that the uranium binds to, once filtered the material is panned out and washed off.^[1] The solution will repeat this process of filtration to pull as much usable uranium out as possible. The filtered uranium is then dried out into U₃O₈ uranium.

There are two ways to convert uranium oxide into its usable forms uranium dioxide and uranium hexafluoride; the wet option and the dry option. In the wet option the yellowcake is dissolved in nitric acid then extracted using tributyl phosphate. The resulting mixture is then dried and washed resulting in uranium trioxide^[4]. The uranium trioxide is then mixed with pure hydrogen resulting in uranium dioxide and dihydrogen monoxide or water. After that the uranium dioxide is mixed with four parts hydrogen fluoride resulting in more water and uranium tetrafluoride. Finally the end product of uranium hexafluoride is created by simply adding more fluoride to the mixture^[5].

While transport casks vary in design, material, size, and purpose they are typically long tubes made typically of stainless steel or concrete with the ends sealed shut so as to prevent leaks. Frequently the casks' shell will have at least one layer of radiation-resistant material, such as lead, . The inside of the tube will also vary depending on what is being transported. For example casks that are transporting fuel rods, depleted or unused will have sleeves that keep the rods separate. While casks that transport uranium hexafluoride typically have no internal organization. Depending on the purpose and radioactivity of the materials some casks have systems of ventilation, thermal protection, impact protection, and more specific to the route and cargo^[6].

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