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Title: Plasma Mass Filters For Nuclear Waste Reprocessing

Abstract

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.

Authors:
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Princeton Plasma Physics Lab. (PPPL), Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
OSTI Identifier:
1014697
Report Number(s):
PPPL-4627
TRN: US1103190
DOE Contract Number:  
DE-ACO2-09CH11466
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; CHEMICAL PROPERTIES; FISSION PRODUCTS; PLASMA; PLASMA CENTRIFUGES; PROCESSING; RADIOACTIVE WASTES; RADIOISOTOPES; REPROCESSING; ROTATING PLASMA; WASTES; Fishbone Instability Devices Rotating, Magnetic Mirrors

Citation Formats

Abraham J. Fetterman and Nathaniel J. Fisch. Plasma Mass Filters For Nuclear Waste Reprocessing. United States: N. p., 2011. Web. doi:10.2172/1014697.
Abraham J. Fetterman and Nathaniel J. Fisch. Plasma Mass Filters For Nuclear Waste Reprocessing. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1014697
Abraham J. Fetterman and Nathaniel J. Fisch. 2011. "Plasma Mass Filters For Nuclear Waste Reprocessing". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1014697. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1014697.
@article{osti_1014697,
title = {Plasma Mass Filters For Nuclear Waste Reprocessing},
author = {Abraham J. Fetterman and Nathaniel J. Fisch},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.2172/1014697},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1014697}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2011},
month = {Thu May 26 00:00:00 EDT 2011}
}