- Uranium tetrachloride
Chembox new
Name = Uranium tetrachloride
ImageFile = UCl4.jpg
ImageName = Uranium Tetrachloride
IUPACName = Tetrachlorouranium
OtherNames = Uranium (IV) Chloride
Section1 = Chembox Identifiers
CASNo = 10026-10-5
Section2 = Chembox Properties
Formula = UCl4
MolarMass = 379.84 g/mol
Solvent =
SolubleOther =
MeltingPt = 590°C
BoilingPt = 791°C
Section3 = Chembox Structure
CrystalStruct = OctahedralUranium tetrachloride (UCl4) is a dark green compound of
uranium . Uranium metal was first isolated (1841) byEugène-Melchior Péligot by the reduction of uranium tetrachloride withpotassium . Commercially uranium tetrachloride is produced by the reaction ofcarbon tetrachloride with pureuranium dioxide UO2 at 370°C. It isradioactive and is soluble inwater .Uranium tetrachloride is used as feed in the electromagnetic
isotope separation (EMIS) process ofuranium enrichment . Beginning in 1944, the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant converted UO3 to UCl4 feed for the forErnest O. Lawrence ’s Alpha Calutrons. Its major benefit being the uranium tetrachloride used in the calutrons is not as corrosive as theuranium hexafluoride used in most other enrichment technologies This process was abandoned in the 1950s. In the 1980s, however,Iraq unexpectedly revived this option as part of its nuclear weapons program. In the enrichment process, uranium tetrachloride is ionized into a uranium plasma.The uranium ions are then accelerated and passed through a strongmagnetic field . After traveling along half of a circle the beam is split into a region nearer the outside wall which is depleted and a region nearer the inside wall which is enriched in U-235. The large amounts of energy required in maintaining the strong magnetic fields as well as the low recovery rates of the uranium feed material and slower more inconvenient facility operation make this an unlikely choice for large scale enrichment plants.Work is being done in the use of molten uranium chloride-alkali chloride mixtures as reactor fuels in
molten salt reactor s. Uranium tetrachloride melts dissolved in a lithium chloride-potassium chloride eutectic have also be explored as a means to recoveractinides from irradiatednuclear fuel s through pyrochemicalnuclear reprocessing .References
* Reaction of chlorine and uranium tetrachloride in the fused lithium chloride-potassium chloride eutectic, Donald R. Olander, J. L. Camahort, Lawrence Radiation Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, California
* The Militarily Critical Technologies List (MCTL),Part II: Weapons of Mass Destruction Technologies, U.S. Department of Defense, updated July 2003.
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