Patent ID: 7374940

Claim:
A method of determining progress of at least one chemical reaction along a longitudinal direction of a furnace, the at least one chemical reaction taking place inside a chamber of a furnace between a reactive gas mixture and a substance in a condensed state in continuous movement in the longitudinal direction of the furnace comprising: removing a plurality of samples of the gas mixture at a plurality of reference points spaced apart from one another along the longitudinal direction of the furnace; analyzing each of the gas samples outside the furnace to determine a composition of the gas mixture; and deducing an extent of the at least one chemical reaction from the composition of the gas mixture at each point wherein the at least one chemical reaction is from contacting uranium oxyfluoride in a powder form moving in the furnace which is rotary with the reactive gas mixture to convert the uranium oxyfluoride into uranium oxides and the deducing the extent of the at least one chemical reaction is from the composition of the gas mixture at each of the reference points to obtain a model of the furnace in a form of graphs of a progress of uranium oxide formation reactions in the longitudinal direction of the furnace.