engineering

Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility

Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility rather than just read about it. In short: The Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility, a uranium conversion facility, is located 1.9 miles (3 km) northwest of Metropolis, Illinois, United States. The plant, Honeywell Specialty Chemicals in Metropolis, Illinois, has a nominal capacity of 15,000 tU as uranium hexafluoride per year.

Key takeaways

Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
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Connect Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility, a uranium conversion facility, is located 1.9 miles (3 km) northwest of Metropolis, Illinois, United States. The plant, Honeywell Specialty Chemicals in Metropolis, Illinois, has a nominal capacity of 15,000 tU as uranium hexafluoride per year. ConverDyn, a general partnership between affiliates of Honeywell and General Atomics, is the exclusive agent for conversion sales from the Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility.

History Built in 1958, the Honeywell Metropolis Works Facility is the only uranium hexafluoride conversion facility in the United States. The plant has an annual conversion capacity of approximately 15,000 tU as UF6 accounting for approximately 20% of worldwide production capacity. The plant feeds U3O8 yellowcake received from uranium mines and produces uranium hexafluoride gas for enrichment at one of the primary enrichment sites around the world. After being enriched, product is fabricated into nuclear fuel that ends up generating electricity at a nuclear power plant.

Conversion process Honeywell Metropolis Works deploys a unique technology and process by which it converts yellowcake to uranium hexafluoride gas. The other Western conversion facilities, Areva and Cameco, each utilize a process that requires two different facilities, one to convert yellowcake to either uranium tetrafluoride or uranium trioxide and another to convert to uranium hexafluoride. Honeywell developed a process known as the dry fluoride volatility conversion process that allows for complete yellowcake to UF6 at a single facility and also yielding a greater level of UF6 purity at 99.99% or higher. The dry fluoride volatility conversion process at Metropolis works goes through five basic steps: feed preparation, reduction, hydrofluorination, fluorination, and distillation.

Feed preparation

The aim of this initial step is to ensure that uranium concentrates have the optimum particle size and density necessary to move forward in the process of conversion.

Reduction During this stage, uranium ore concentrates are converted to uranium dioxide and impurities are removed from the system into a waste gas stream. The sized yellowcake is reacted with hydrogen in a fluidizing medium to form uranium dioxide

U3O8+2H2 → 3UO2 + 2H2O Hydrofluorination The UO2 resulting from the previous reduction stage is then converted into uranium tetrafluoride intermediate (Green Salt) and additional impurities are removed from the system.

UO2+4HF → UF4 + 2H2O Fluorination

The Metropolis Works Plant operates the largest gaseous fluorine capacity in the world. Fluorine is produced in this process by the electrolysis of HF in a potassium bifluoride substrate. The fluorine is pulled to the fluorination process under vacuum so as to increase the safety of this step. The result of this step is crude uranium hexafluoride gas.

UF4+F2 → UF6 Distillation Finally, uranium hexafluoride from the previous step is purified in a two-stage distillation system. The crude UF6 is vaporized and transferred through a boiling system into cold traps. After cooling, the final product is filled into cylinders for transport. This stage is proprietary Honeywell technology which allows output of 99.99% or greater UF6.

2012 required plant upgrades After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission conducted inspections at all US nuclear facilities for seismic deficiencies and general resistance to natural disasters. Although initial inspections confirmed that the Metropolis Works Facility was in full compliance with its operating license, the NRC shut down the plant in May 2012 and required a series of upgrades to improve resilience to natural disasters including earthquakes and tornadoes. Honeywell elected to complete required upgrades and the plant restarted production of uranium hexafluoride in July 2013, after more than a year offline.

Incidents

2003 UF6 release At 2:45 CST on 12/22/03, a small release of Uranium hexafluoride occurred lasting approximately 45 minutes. At 3:00 CST the licensee declared a Site Area Emergency, indicating failure of systems design to prevent risk to the public. All personnel were evacuated within a 1-mile (1.6 km) radius. About 25 people offsite were temporarily evacuated and some 75 persons remained sheltered for a time in their homes. Licensee notified State of Illinois. NRC was notified at 0400 CST. The licensee terminated the Site Area Emergency at 6:50 CST on 12/22/03.

2010 labor dispute At the conclusion of regularly scheduled collective bargaining between Honeywell and United Steelworkers local 7-669, the largest resident union at the Metropolis facility, the company locked out union members when they refused to ratify a new agreement with several concessions. The Union continued to work for seven days without an agreement until the company initiated the lockout on June 28, 2010. The lockout lasted until August 1, 2011, when the union ratified a new three year collective bargaining agreement.

2014 labor dispute After failing to come to an agreement at the expiration of the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, Honeywell locked out the United Steelworkers local 7-669 on August 1, 2014. The lockout ended on March 27, 2015, after the union ratified a new three-year agreement with Honeywell.

2014 UF6 release On October 26, 2014, a small amount of uranium hexafluoride was released inside of the facility. Honeywell attributed the accident to an equipment failure and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission began an investigation of the plant to make sure safety procedures were followed. After completing their investigation, the NRC affirmed that the leak was the result of an equipment failure and that the leak was entirely contained within the building. The NRC affirmed that what appeared to be a visible cloud of gas was the result of water cannons which are a part of the emergency response process in the event of a release. After the NRC and Honeywell completed all required procedures and assured that the facility was safe to continue operation, Honeywell Metropolis Works resumed production of UF6 on November 7, 2014.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility

In research: Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 establishments in Illinois, Buildings and structures in Massac County, Illinois, Companies based in Massac County, Illinois, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility means in your own words.
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Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility in simple terms?

Why does Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility.