The Blind River refinery receives drums of uranium ore concentrates from mines around the world. Each shipment is weighed and sampled for quality and uranium content at the refinery prior to entering the process.
Cameco is seeking approval for remilling two recyclable products from the Blind River refinery and Port Hope conversion facility in Ontario, at its Key Lake operation in northern Saskatchewan. Project summary.
The refining process includes the following steps:
- digestion -- nitric acid is added to uranium concentrates to produce a uranyl nitrate solution
- solvent extraction -- impurities are removed from the uranyl nitrate solution using a three-stage process
- boildown -- water is evaporated to produce a concentrated, nuclear-grade uranyl nitrate hexahydrate liquid
- denitration -- concentrated uranyl nitrate hexahydrate is thermally decomposed to uranium trioxide (UO3)
Cameco transports the UO3 to Port Hope where it is converted to uranium dioxide (UO2) or uranium hexafluoride (UF6). The UO3 is transported in specially designed tote bins, which carry 9.5 tonnes of product each.