Production of nuclear grade zirconium: A review

Xu, Liang; Yan, Xiao; Sandwijk, A. van; Xu, Qian; Yang, Yongxiang

doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2015.07.010

Cited by 132 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 33 publications

(23 reference statements)

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“…Zirconium (Zr) is considered as vital material in the nuclear industry [1]. This metal and its alloys are utilized as a construction material for nuclear reactors and as fuel rod cladding [2][3][4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This metal and its alloys are utilized as a construction material for nuclear reactors and as fuel rod cladding [2][3][4]. Zirconium has a unique combination of the physical and chemical characteristics such as suitable thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, and low thermal neutron capture cross-section (0.18 barns) [1,5]. The nuclear industry consumes around 90% of the total world production of zirconium [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The nuclear industry consumes around 90% of the total world production of zirconium [6]. Hafnium and zirconium have extremely similar chemical and physical properties thus hafnium is constantly co-existed, 1-3 wt%, in natural zirconium minerals [1,3,7]. Hafnium has high thermal neutrons capture cross-section, 102 b, more than a hundreds of times higher than that of Zr [4,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Zirconium and Hafnium Separation by Novel Green Emulsion Liquid Membrane Containing an Environmentally Benign Diluent

Ismail

Aly

2020

Arab Journal of Nuclear Sciences and Applications

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Green liquid emulsion membrane (LEM) was developed for separation of zirconium and hafnium from nitric acid medium. The membrane is based on the use of CYANEX-272 diluted with corn oil (green diluent) as a carrier, span 80 as a surfactant and citric acid as a stripping agent. The factors affecting the stability of the LEM were investigated under chosen conditions. The parameters affecting the permeation of Zr and Hf from nitrate medium were also studied. The metal ion content in the inner phase obtained by demulsifying the loaded CC-LEM using the freeze-thaw method is 22.8 g/l Zr and 2.05 mg/l Hf i.e. the contamination of the recovered Zr is 89.91 mg Hf/ kg Zr which is below the limit for the use of zirconium in nuclear applications.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Zirconium and Hafnium Separation by Novel Green Emulsion Liquid Membrane Containing an Environmentally Benign Diluent

Ismail

Aly

2020

Arab Journal of Nuclear Sciences and Applications

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“…Zirconium is widely used in nuclear industry due to the low neutron-absorption cross-section and excellent corrosion-resistance properties, such as the cladding tube of the nuclear fuel because of its excellent nuclear property [4][5][6][7].Zirconium is also applied in the fields such as heat exchanger in petroleum chemical industry, hydrogen storage materials [8], reaction vessel, drying column and piping system equipment and so on. Owe to the important strategic position of zirconium, many means were developed to produce metal zirconium.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electrochemical behavior of zirconium in the (NaCl-KCl-NaF- ZrO2) molten salt

Ma¹,

Wu²,

Li³

et al. 2018

Proceedings of the 2017 3rd International Forum on Energy, Environment Science and Materials (IFEESM 2017)

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Abstract. As a refractory metal, zirconium has a wide range of applications in many fields. The method of electrode position to produce metal zirconium is more available, it is important to study the behavior of zirconium in the molten salt. The electrochemical reaction mechanism and electrocrystallization process of zirconium in the NaCl-KCl-NaF-ZrO2 molten salt were studied at 973 K by means of cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry, and chronoamperometry techniques. The results show that the electrochemical reaction process of zirconium in the NaCl-KCl-NaF-ZrO2 molten salt system is a reversible process and controlled by ion diffusion rate. Zirconium ion in this system is reduced to Zr(0) in only one step and the diffusion coefficient of Zr ion in the system is 3.274×10 -5 cm 2 •s -1 . The electrocrystallization process of zirconium is an instantaneous hemispheroid three-dimensional nucleation process.

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“…(Xu et al, 2015;Nielsen et al, 2000). Although both elements can be found in group 4 of the periodic table, their properties as regards nuclear application differ, the thermal neutron capture cross-section being much higher for Hf than that for Zr.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%