An improved process for recovering irradiated nuclear reactor fuel material is disclosed. This process includes the steps of extracting uranium, plutonium and neptunium from a solution of irradiated fuel, passing this stream to a reflux column, where a high saturation of uranium is maintained. Separation of uranium from plutonium and neptunium, and further decontamination of uranium results from this high saturation. This process is simple, has a high recovery efficiency and high decontamination...

A reductive stripping flow sheet for recovery of uranium from wet-process phosphoric acid is described. Uranium is stripped from a uranium-loaded organic phase by a redox reaction converting the uranyl to uranous ion. The uranous ion is reoxidized to the uranyl oxidation state to form an aqueous feed solution highly concentrated in uranium. Processing of this feed through a second solvent extraction cycle requires far less stripping reagent as compared to a flow sheet which does not include the ...

A peripheral protection device for two metal pieces (10, 12) fitted into one another and having a general flange shape, the first (12) of which has an edge (18) extending outwards and the second (10) of which has a marginal zone, a first part (14) of which has substantially the form of a capital S whose vertical axis is substantially parallel to the edge (18) and a second part (16) of which is substantially perpendicular to the edge (18) consists of an arc having, in section, the general form of...

The recovery of neptunium values from the Purex Process for reprocessing irradiated nuclear reactor fuel is improved by adding a rate-accelerating material to increase the rate of oxidation of the neptunium in the nitric acid solution in the first extraction column. The rate-accelerating material is formed by adding 1-nitropropane to a sodium hydroxide solution to form the aci-form of nitropropane, then adding sodium nitrite and acidifying the solution by the addition of nitric acid.

A miniature keyboard wherein the keys are arranged in a way to improve data entry and decrease the chance of depressing multiple keys at a time. Accordingly, the height of the keys are patterned to decrease the chance of multiple key depressions thus increasing the accuracy of data input into the personal digital assistant. In one embodiment, the height of the keys is alternated down the individual rows of keys. In another embodiment, the height of the keys is alternated across individual column...

Communicating operational information to a user of an appliance regarding the operational mode of the appliance and the options available for a selected operational mode and the options selected.

A handheld electronic device includes a reduced QWERTY keyboard and is enabled with disambiguation software that is operable to disambiguate text input. In addition to identifying and outputting representations of language objects that are stored in the memory and that correspond with a text input, the device is able to employ contextual data in certain circumstances to prioritize output and to learn new contextual data.

An apparatus and process for pulverization of polymeric material having a multi-component screw disposed within an elongated cylindrical housing. The multi-component screw has an independently rotatable extrusion portion and an independently rotatable pulverization portion. A cooling means is provided to maintain the fine powder material produced during the pulverization process at a desired temperature. In one embodiment of this invention, a second multi-component screw having an independently ...

The pointing device has a moveable puck that moves over a surface in a puck field of motion. A position detector measures the puck position in the puck field of motion. In one embodiment, the puck includes a user sensor that detects an interaction between a user and the puck. A controller causes a cursor to move on a display in response to the puck moving in the puck field of motion when the user sensor senses the interaction between the user and the puck. The magnitude and direction of motion o...

A piezoelectric detector for determination of the mass or film thickness of gaseous, liquid or solid substances being adsorbed or condensed on the surface of a piezoelectric resonator, having at least one measuring resonator with at least one integrated thin-film sensor, one discrete or integrated on the resonator re-evaporation heating element, and a reference resonator separated from the measuring resonator with a contamination shield, and protected from contamination, but not from heat radiat...