Plasma Mass Filters For Nuclear Waste Reprocessing

Abraham J. Fetterman and Nathaniel J. Fisch

关键词: CHEMICAL PROPERTIES;    FISSION PRODUCTS;    PLASMA;    PLASMA CENTRIFUGES;    PROCESSING;    RADIOACTIVE WASTES;    RADIOISOTOPES;    REPROCESSING;    ROTATING PLASMA;    WASTES Fishbone Instability Devices Rotating;    Magnetic Mirrors;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1014697
RP-ID  :  PPPL-4627
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1014697
Others  :  TRN: US1103190

学科分类：原子、分子光学和等离子物理

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

Practical disposal of nuclear waste requires high-throughput separation techniques. The most dangerous part of nuclear waste is the fission product, which contains the most active and mobile radioisotopes and produces most of the heat. We suggest that the fission products could be separated as a group from nuclear waste using plasma mass filters. Plasmabased processes are well suited to separating nuclear waste, because mass rather than chemical properties are used for separation. A single plasma stage can replace several stages of chemical separation, producing separate streams of bulk elements, fission products, and actinoids. The plasma mass filters may have lower cost and produce less auxiliary waste than chemical processing plants. Three rotating plasma configurations are considered that act as mass filters: the plasma centrifuge, the Ohkawa filter, and the asymmetric centrifugal trap.