Yellowcake

Yellowcake (English, yellow cake 'or' yellow cake ') is a yellow, powdery mixture of uranium compounds.

In uranium down to 0.1 % uranium is in the form of oxides. After the ore mining follows the first stage of processing, the production of yellowcake. The uranium oxides can be removed from the mined ore with acids. Mined from two tons of ore is obtained in uranium mills approximately one kilograms of yellowcake. It consists of more than 80 % of uranium compounds.

Yellowcake is the starting material for the fabrication of fuel. The other processing steps depend on the type of reactor in which the uranium is to be used. Is an enrichment required, Yellowcake is in the crystalline in a chemical process under normal conditions, from 56 ° C gaseous uranium hexafluoride ( UF6) converted. Otherwise, it is processed into uranium dioxide or uranium metal.

The residues from the extraction of yellowcake (called tailings ), despite the separation of uranium radioactive yet and must therefore be ordered removed. Due to their large quantity and the long half -life of the remaining thorium, radium and uranium isotopes put them on for a long time an environmental problem dar. A particular problem is the contamination of groundwater resources.