Recovery of uranium (VI)‎ from treated technological sample, El Sela area, south eastern desert, Egypt

Abstract EN

The extraction of uranium from aqueous nitrate solution was studied using the organic extractant tributyl phosphate or 1,4 Dioxane dissolved in different diluents.

The parameters affecting the extraction and stripping of U (VI) include types of diluents, extractants concentrations, aqueous to organic phase ratio (A/O), shaking time and stripping agents.

The factors studied were followed by application of the suitable extraction system to extract U content from two fractions of the solid waste (slime and coarse size) from El Sela area, Egypt.

The data obtained showed that, best results were obtained using each of the following systems; 20 % TBP dissolved in toluene, A/O 1:1, 4 min.

of shaking time and 5M HNO3 acid stripping solution, or; 5 % 1,4 Dioxane dissolved in CCl4, A/O 1:1, 5 min.

of shaking time and 0.5M HNO3 acid for the stripping process.

It was recommended to wash the slime sample by acidified water to decrease the range of pH to 1 to overcome the problem of hydrolysis and precipitation of uranium.

The data obtained from statistical calculations showed that, Error (%) in studied samples is less than 2 %.

While, the accuracy (Δ) is less than ±3 declaring high accuracy and precision for the obtained results.