ScholarLens Back to search
1982•Unpublished venueOpen access

Six-kilogram-scale electrorefining of plutonium metal

Not Available, L. J. Mullins, USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Nuclear Criticality Safety Program (NCSP), Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA), A. Morgan, Sheldon K Apgar, Daniel H. Christensen

Open full text 9 citations

Abstract

The electrorefining of metallic plutonium scrap to produce high purity metal has been an established procedure at Los Alamos since 1964. This is a batch process and was limited to 4-kg plutonium because of criticality safety considerations. Improvements in critical mass measurements have permitted us to develop a process for 6-kg plutonium. The 6-kg process is now operational. The increased size of the process, together with other improvements which have been made, makes plutonium electrorefining the principal industrial tool for processing and purifying metallic plutonium scrap.

Open-access reader

About this research paper

What this paper is about

The electrorefining of metallic plutonium scrap to produce high purity metal has been an established procedure at Los Alamos since 1964. This is a batch process and was limited to 4-kg plutonium because of criticality safety considerations. Improvements in critical mass measurements have permitted us to develop a process for 6-kg plutonium. The 6-kg process is now operational. The increased size of the process, together with other improvements which have been made, makes plutonium electrorefining the principal industrial tool for processing and purifying metallic plutonium scrap.

Why it matters

OpenAlex reports 9 citations for this work. Citation counts describe recorded attention and do not establish research quality.

Key contribution

A contribution statement is not available in the OpenAlex record.

Method / approach

Method details are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Main findings

Findings are not separately available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Limitations

Limitations are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Applications

Application details are not available in the OpenAlex metadata.

Available abstract

The electrorefining of metallic plutonium scrap to produce high purity metal has been an established procedure at Los Alamos since 1964. This is a batch process and was limited to 4-kg plutonium because of criticality safety considerations. Improvements in critical mass measurements have permitted us to develop a process for 6-kg plutonium. The 6-kg process is now operational. The increased size of the process, together with other improvements which have been made, makes plutonium electrorefining the principal industrial tool for processing and purifying metallic plutonium scrap.

Key concepts: Plutonium, Scrap, Electrowinning, Transuranium element, Metallurgy, Criticality, Spent nuclear fuel, Materials science

Related papers

Related paper 1Related paper 2Related paper 3
Back to paper searchBrowse research topicsOriginal source
Six-kilogram-scale electrorefining of plutonium metal — Research Paper | ScholarLens