Development of advanced concepts for improved heavy water production technology. I. Quarterly progress report, October 1, 1976--December 31, 1976

Technical Report · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1977

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/7092873· OSTI ID:7092873

Marling, J. B.; Aldridge, F. T.; Wood, L. L.

Three strongly differing processes for deuterium isotope separation continued under development during the reporting period which may lead to improved heavy water production technologies. Compound characterization continued and promising alloys were evaluated for rare-earth-transition metal hydrides suitable for chromatographic hydrogen isotope separation. Equilibrium pressure curves for hydrogen and deuterium over these compounds were measured; the single-step deuterium enrichment ratios of 30% were observed for the most promising compounds. Spectroscopic studies suggested that deuterium halide-olefin addition reactions accelerated by IR lasers can be verified by Nd-YAG laser excitations of HBr and DBr overtone bands. Compounds suitable for CO/sub 2/ laser multiphoton deuterium-selective dissociation were determined. The most promising compounds have dissociation barriers of less than 2 eV and extremely high frequency factors, which should permit high quantum efficiencies to be attainable.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 7092873
• Report Number(s): UCID-17405-77-1
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

07 ISOTOPES AND RADIATION SOURCES
DEUTERIUM
ISOTOPE SEPARATION
HEAVY WATER
PRODUCTION
CHROMATOGRAPHY
LASER ISOTOPE SEPARATION
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROGEN ISOTOPES
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
NUCLEI
ODD-ODD NUCLEI
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
STABLE ISOTOPES
WATER
070101* - Heavy Water Production