PRODUCTION OF THE NEW THORIUM-URANIUM PLANT ON TROMBAY ISLAND

Created: 6/18/1956

OCR scan of the original document, errors are possible

INFORMATION REPORT

AND DISSEMINATED BY

CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY

of the Sew Tnorlum-uraniu* Plant on Tronbay Island

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Indian Governaant's new thorlua-uranlum plant on Tronbay Island near

Boabay lu now producing

[which la roughly equivalenthousand suL^ontonsaf^oaT.inea the present annual coal production of India.

the actual outputt is known that capacity bee bean upgraded eevsmi tinea since trial runs coamenced in the third week of The plant will go Into production inbut the foxtail opening is not slated to take plaoe until

Said to be the only one of its kind in Aula the Tronbay plant, which processes the thorium-uranium cake residue fron the Indianther rare-earth factory at Alwayss situatedew hundred yards from the building which will house India's first "awia-adng pool" type reactor.

A. The Troabay unit Is entirely the work of Indian engineers, originally trained by Preach azparte whan the South Indian Always plant was built. It costarge port of ths squlpasnt now in use is of Indian aanufaoturs. But the elkalias process for the treetaent of Bona site in the patent of the Socioto Chinlquo dee Terras Bares, which alsoscow of the plant's cooling apparatus,

At Troabay, ths crude thoriun hydrous oxide cake from Always is dissolved in an sxosss of hydrochloric acid and the resulting ohlorido solution is filteredlate and frame type filter press to remove Insolublelike ilaenite and zircon. The clear filtrate, whicher centa precipitatedulphate while most of the rare earths and all the uranium remain in solution. The thoriun sulphate lo aontrlfugedubberlined centrifuge and tho solution la sunt for recovery of thorium, rare earths and uranium which are in solution. This aulphato is not pure enough and is further purified by rsprecipitating wither cent sulphuric acid tourer thorium

The pure sulphate is oonvsrted to the hydroxide by reacting it with" monium hydroxide. This is filtered and washed with distilled water. The thorium hydroxide is then dissolved in chemically purs nitric acid to give

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a solution of thorium nitratelass-lino evaporator. The molten nitrate is allowed to solidify in aluminum dishes and then packed in glass bottles.

The process upgrades the Always thorium cakeer cent9 per cent and alsoertain amount of uranium. As for as major USare concerned* the principal raw material sources for thorium are the monazite placers of Brazil^ India and the high grade hydro-thermal deposits in the Union of South Africa, Indian scientists claim the Indian product it* superior to that found in the other two countries* Travancore and Medina monazitei8 per cent UiOger cent Tho? in sands holding other heavy minerals. Total deposits In the Travuncore-Coohln area areto behousand tons of Thco. but other scattered beaches along the southwest coasts are known toonsiderable additional tonnage. Concentrations0 per cent Tho2.

The Trombay plant, jointly owned by the Government of India and the Travancore-Cochin Government, is operated by the autonomous Indian Rare Earths Ltd, which works under tha direction of the Atomic Energy Commission, The finished processed product is sold by Bare Earths Ltd in India forgainst the global price of. The reason for this is higher production costs, principally of hydrochloric acid, which is four tines higher than anywhere abroad.

Lthat if the

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figures, however, indicate that the Government will ask the Rare Earths company to try "one more upgrading soon".

-end-

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Original document.

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