b'A Novel Head-endFundamental hydrogen bonding kinetics enable uranium Process for Used Uranium- recovery from uranium-aluminum based nuclear fuels.aluminum Fuels T his project examined the feasibility of developing a dry process to separate aluminum (Al) from used uranium aluminide (UAl x ) fuel. Hydrogen offers the possibility of selectively hydriding uranium present in the uranium aluminide without chemically altering aluminum because aluminum does not form hydrides under the standard conditions of temperature and pressure. Initial experiments involved systematic hydriding test runs involving surrogate aluminides. Two types of surrogate aluminides were subjected to extensive hydriding PROJECT NUMBER:experiments. These experiments involved heating the alloys to a maximum 21A1050-068 temperature of 980C for durations up to 10 hours under positive (100%) hydrogen TOTAL APPROVED AMOUNT:pressure and continuous pure hydrogen flow conditions. Analysis of the hydrided $741,000 over 2 years products indicated the separation of metal hydrides from aluminum metal without the formation of any aluminum hydride phase in the degraded alloys. PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR:These promising results formed the basis for repeating the hydriding experiments Prabhat Tripathy with the synthetic uranium aluminide alloys. Like surrogate aluminides, uranium CO-INVESTIGATORS: aluminides (consisting of a mixture of UAl and UAl) showed the early promise for Guy Fredrickson, INL the development of such a dry process. These studies further indicated that although Michael Patterson, INL presence of less oxygen is tolerable, significant contamination of the alloys with Collin Andersen, University of Utah oxygen can complicate the overall hydriding process. The success of the project, with Michael Simpson, University of Utah the help of two university partners, resulted in intellectual property generation and the award of a graduate research fellowship. Additionally, several journal papers are COLLABORATOR: being prepared based on the research. University of Texas at San AntonioState of uranium aluminide (UAl + UAl) before (left) and after (right) exposure to hydrogen at 700C for 5 hours.60'