Recovery of Uranium from Wet Phosphoric Acid by Solvent Extraction Processes

Abstract

Between 1951 and 1991, about 17 processes were developed to recover uranium from wet phosphoric acid (WPA), but the viability of these processes was subject to the variation of the uranium price market. Nowadays, uranium from WPA appears to be attractive due to the increase of the global uranium demand resulting from the emergence of developing countries. The increasing demand provides impetus for a new look at the applicable technology with a view to improvements as well as altogether new approaches. This paper gives an overview on extraction processes developed in the past to recover uranium from wet phosphoric acid (WPA) as well as the physicochemistry involved in these processes. Recent advances concerning the development of new extraction systems are also reported and discussed.