Yellowcake
Yellow Cake is a redirect to this article. For the German documentary film, see Yellow Cake - Die Lüge von der sauberen Energie.
Yellowcake is a powdered mixture of uranium compounds. The name comes from the original yellow color of the powder from earlier manufacturing processes. Due to the higher temperatures used today in the processing of uranium ore, modern yellowcake is actually more brown to black.
Uranium ore contains up to 0.1% uranium in the form of oxides. After ore mining, the first processing step is the production of yellowcake. The uranium oxides can be dissolved out of the mined ore with acids. From two tons of mined ore, about one kilogram of yellowcake is obtained in uranium mills. It consists of more than 80 % uranium compounds.
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Yellowcake is the starting material for the production of fuel elements. The further processing steps depend on the type of reactor in which the uranium is to be used. If enrichment is required, yellowcake is converted in a chemical process into uranium hexafluoride (UF6), which is crystalline under normal conditions and gaseous at 56 °C and above. Otherwise, it is further processed to uranium dioxide or uranium metal.
The residues from the extraction of yellowcake (so-called tailings) are still radioactive despite the separation of uranium and must therefore be disposed of in an orderly manner. Due to their large quantity and the long half-life of the remaining thorium, radium and uranium isotopes, they pose an environmental problem for a long time. The contamination of groundwater resources is particularly problematic.
crumbly yellowcake in test tube
A container of powdered yellowcake
