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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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NNSA awards BWXT $1.5B defense fuels contract
The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has awarded BWX Technologies a contract valued at $1.5 billion to build a Domestic Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge Experiment (DUECE) pilot plant in Tennessee in support of the administration’s efforts to build out a domestic supply of unobligated enriched uranium for defense-related nuclear fuel.
E. J. Petkus, T. R. Johnson, R. K. Steunenberg
Nuclear Technology | Volume 4 | Number 6 | June 1968 | Pages 388-393
Technical Paper and Note | doi.org/10.13182/NT68-A26363
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Uranium monocarbide was synthesized on a 500- to 1000-g scale by the reaction of uranium dissolved in a liquid zinc-magnesium alloy with finely divided carbon suspended in the liquid-metal solution. The carbide precipitated as an insoluble solid phase that was heavier than the solvent metal. After a settling period, the bulk of the Zn-Mg supernatant liquid was transferred by pressure-siphoning. The Zn-Mg remaining with the UC precipitate was removed by vacuum distillation at temperatures of 850 to 900°C. The better UC products had a carbon-to-uranium atom ratio (C/U) of 1.05 to 1.10 and contained 0.2 to 0.3 wt% O and 0.2 to 0.4 wt% Mg and Zn. Uranium monocarbide was the only compound formed by this method but it was not possible to produce UC with a C/U ratio of 1.00 or less because an excess of carbon was necessary to completely react the dissolved uranium.