Uranium recovery and purification process and production of high purity uranium tetrafluoride

Claim 1

A PROCESS FOR PURIFYING AND RECOVERING URANIUM VALUE FROM A CONTAMINED SOLID, COMPRISING LEACHING URANIUM VALUES FROM SAID METERIAL WITH AN ACIDIC SOLUTION THEREBY PRODUCING A CONTAMINATED URANIUM SOLUTION,, TREATING SAID SOLUTION WITH A OXIDIZING AGENT TO PLACE ALL OF THE URANIUM IN THE HEXAVALENT STATE, ADDING SUFFICIENT SOLUBLE CHLORIDE TO SAID SOLUTION TO INCREASE THE CHLORIDE CONTENT ABOVE ABOUT 5 M, WHEREBY THE SAID HEXAVALENT URANIUM IS CONVERTED TO URANYL CHLORIDE COMPLEX ANION, CONTACTING SAID SOLUTION WITH A HIGHLY BASIC ANIONIC EXCHARGE RESIN TO ADSORB SAID URANYL CHLORIDE COMPLEX ANION THEREON, WASHING OCCLUDED SOLUTION AND IMPURITIES FROM THE RESIN WITH HC! OF ABOVE 5 M CONCENTRATION, ELUTING THE PURIFIED URANIUM VALUES WITH WATER, REDUCING THE URANIUM TO THE TETRAVALENT STATE IN THE ELUATE SOLUTION BY ELECTROYSIS, AND PRECIPITATION THE TETRAVALENT URANIUM AS URANIUM TETRAFLUORIDE BY ADDING HF TO THE ELUATE SOLUTION.