Jarrie

• The Chemicals Operating Unit converts the feed material, fused zirconia, into zirconium tetrachloride through a series of processes conducted in this unit’s three facilities.
  • The carbochlorination facility: fused zirconia and carbon black are mixed together and made to react with chlorine in high-temperature furnaces, producing gross hafnium-containing zirconium tetrachloride.
  • The sublimation facility uses furnaces to produce purified hafnium-containing zirconium tetrachloride.
  • The zirconium-hafnium separation facility uses extractive distillation to separate nuclear grade zirconium tetrachloride from hafnium tetrachloride inside a 40-meter-high extraction column.

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he Metals Operating Unit converts the zirconium tetrachloride produced in the previous step into zirconium sponge.

• At the Kroll facility, the zirconium tetrachloride is placed in reaction furnaces containing solid magnesium. A pile of zirconium sponge is produced at the end of the hot conversion process. Those piles are further refined by distillation to remove magnesium metal such producing the so-called zirconium sponge.
• In the milling facility, the sponge is crushed and flaked in an inert gas atmosphere. The pieces of sponge are sorted visually and packaged in 200-kg drums. Most of this sponge will be converted into zirconium alloy components to fabricate fuel for nuclear reactors around the world.