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Why is ammonia commonly used when producing ammonium diuranate yellow cake?
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uranium processing
How uranium is enriched to make a nuclear weapon.
In the context of uranium processing, aqueous ammonia is commonly used as a neutralizer to precipitate uranium from acidic solutions produced during ion-exchange or solvent-extraction processes.1
By adding ammonia to these acidic solutions, the uranium is precipitated as ammonium diuranate, (NH₄)₂U₂O₇, which is a form of yellow cake. A key advantage of using ammonia in this specific application is that it can be easily removed during subsequent processing steps; the yellow cake can be ignited to drive off the ammonia, allowing for the oxidation of the uranium into uranium trioxide (UO₃) or triuranium octoxide (U₃O₈).1