Characterisation of urannite using x-ray diffration (XRD) and general area detector diffraction system (GADDS)

Nuclear power has rapidly come to the forefront as a cheaper, more reliable fuel source to solve the world's energy crisis. In order to meet future demands for nuclear fuel there has been increased interest in optimizing the extraction of uranium from its various minerals. One of the major uranium minerals used to produce nuclear fuel is tetravalent uraninite (UO2). Various aspects of the extraction of uranium from theis mineral are however poorly understood suchas the influence of dopants (impurities) and gangue minerals found in the same ore deposits. In this study three natural uraninite samples were characterized using in-situ High temperature X-ray diffraction (HT-XRD) a General Area Detector Diffraction System (GADDS) (using whole rock samples). The results were then compared to synthetic UO2 to determine structural and compositional differences between natural and synthetic UO2. XRD results showed that the samples were all crystalline at room temperature and contained high amounts of uranium dioxide. The common gangue minerals associated with the minerals included silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide.