Separation of isotopes by ionisation for processing of nuclear fuel materials
First Claim
1. A process for separating one or more ionized components at elevated kinetic energy from one or more components at lower kinetic energy, the process comprising providing a process stream containing the elevated and lower kinetic energy components;
- introducing a chemical material to the process stream and wherein the introduced chemical material contacts both the elevated and lower kinetic energy level components;
contact with the elevated kinetic energy components resulting in a still ionized form of that component and contact with the lower kinetic energy component resulting in a non-ionized form of that component, the separation being based on the ionized and/or non-ionized state of the components.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Processing apparatus and methods are provided which involve the selective ionization of a feed material; the separation of ionized and non-ionized species; a selective excitation of the still ionized species; introduction of a chemical material to cause selective transition to a non-ionized state of part of the feed; and a further separation of ionized and non-ionized species. Other improvements in selective excitation based processing are also disclosed. Separation of isotopes and/or elements from one another and changing chemical and physical form is provided in a single process from a variety of feeds.
-
Citations
40 Claims
-
1. A process for separating one or more ionized components at elevated kinetic energy from one or more components at lower kinetic energy, the process comprising providing a process stream containing the elevated and lower kinetic energy components;
- introducing a chemical material to the process stream and wherein the introduced chemical material contacts both the elevated and lower kinetic energy level components;
contact with the elevated kinetic energy components resulting in a still ionized form of that component and contact with the lower kinetic energy component resulting in a non-ionized form of that component, the separation being based on the ionized and/or non-ionized state of the components. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 30)
- introducing a chemical material to the process stream and wherein the introduced chemical material contacts both the elevated and lower kinetic energy level components;
-
21. A process comprising the steps of:
-
providing a feed of mixed components in a magnetic field, the mixed components including ionized first components and ionized second components, the ionized first components and the ionized second components each having an average kinetic energy;
increasing the average kinetic energy of the ionized first components and the ionized second components so that the average kinetic energy of the ionized first components is greater than the average kinetic energy of the ionized second components;
introducing a chemical material into the feed of mixed components, the chemical material interacting with the ionized first components and the ionized second components such that a majority of the ionized second components become non-ionized, a majority of the ionized first components remaining ionized; and
substantially separating the remaining ionized first components from the non-ionized second components. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31)
-
-
32. A process comprising the steps of:
-
subjecting a feed of mixed components comprising ionized 235U and ionized 238U to ion cyclotron resonance, the ion cyclotron resonance causing the ionized 235U to have an average kinetic energy that is greater than an average kinetic energy of the ionized 238U;
introducing a chemical material into the feed of mixed components, the chemical material interacting with the 235U and 238U so as to leave at least a portion of the 235U of the feed in ionized form and at least a portion of the 238U of the feed in non-ionized form;
substantially separating the ionized 235U from the non-ionized 238U; and
solidifying the separated 235U to give ceramic grade uranium dioxide.
-
-
33. A process comprising the steps of:
-
providing a feed of mixed components in a magnetic field, the mixed components including ionized first components and ionized second components, the ionized first components and the ionized second components each having an average kinetic energy;
increasing the average kinetic energy of ionized first components and the ionized second components so that the average kinetic energy of the ionized first components is greater than the average kinetic energy of the ionized second components;
introducing a chemical material into the feed of mixed components so that the chemical material reacts with at least a portion of the ionized second components so as to form the at least portion of ionized second components into non-ionized third components, a majority of the ionized first components remaining ionized; and
substantially separating the remaining ionized first components from the non-ionized third components. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36)
-
-
37. A process comprising the steps of:
-
providing a feed of mixed components in a magnetic field, the mixed components including an ionized first component having a kinetic energy and an ionized second component having a kinetic energy, the first component and second component each consisting of a discrete atom or molecule;
increasing the kinetic energy of the ionized first component and the ionized second component, the kinetic energy of the first component being increased more than the kinetic energy of the second component;
introducing oxygen into the feed of mixed components so that the oxygen interacts with the ionized second component so that the second component becomes non-ionized, the ionized first component remaining ionized; and
separating the ionized first component from the non-ionized second component. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40)
-
Specification