US 5,883,350 A · Crisla process

Abstract

Nozzle cooling and wall contact prevention control are included in a gaseous CRISLA apparatus, along with removable collectors, and the efficient use of one or more currently available high power lasers to produce a commercially economic isotope separation process. The wall contact prevention is accomplished with gaseous boundary layers, and a supersonic nozzle normally is used to cool and separate excitation bands of the isotopic material. Non-intermixing gaseous streams with different isotopic assays can be created in a single nozzle chamber and segmented collection chamber, which along with recirculation loops and compressors, allows a single laser system and a single nozzle system to be used to selectively excite the isotopic material while it makes multiple passes through the laser beams of the laser system until only a small fraction of the desired isotope remains to be separated. The process is especially effective in separating .sup.235 UF.sub.6 from a gaseous mixture of .sup.235 UF.sub.6 and .sup.238 UF.sub.6.

Claims36

Dependent claims

A method of separating isotopic molecules including:

mixing the isotopes in gaseous form with carrier gas;
cooling the mixture of isotopic molecules in gaseous form and carrier gas in a supersonic expansion;
selectively exciting a predetermined isotopic molecule in gaseous form by irradiation of the isotopic molecules in gaseous form by photons having at least one predetermined wavelength which is absorbed by the predetermined isotopic molecule in gaseous form to be separated while the isotopic molecules in gaseous form are moving in a supersonic stream in the supersonic expansion;
mixing a reactant with the mixture of isotopic molecules in gaseous form and carrier gas, the reactant being chosen to react substantially more often with excited isotopic molecules in gaseous form than unexcited isotopic molecules in gaseous form;
shielding the excited predetermined isotopic molecules in gaseous form in inert gas;
and
capturing the product of reaction between the excited predetermined isotopic molecules in gaseous form and the reactant on at least one collection surface.

4 more elements

A CRISLA process for enriching the .sup.235 U isotope in Uranium from a mixture of .sup.235 UF.sub.6 and .sup.238 UF.sub.6 in a flow chamber, the flow chamber having:

at least one wall;
an input section;
an excitation section for introducing photons of at least one predetermined frequency and density into the flow chamber downstream from the input section;
and
an output section downstream of the excitation section including:
at least one collector surface, the process including the steps of:
feeding the mixture of .sup.235 UF.sub.6 and .sup.238 UF.sub.6 and an inert carrier gas into the input section of the flow chamber for flow through the excitation section to the output section so that the mixture of .sup.235 UF.sub.6 and .sup.238 UF.sub.6 avoids contact with the at least one wall of the flow chamber in at least the excitation section;
cooling the mixture of .sup.235 UF.sub.6 and .sup.238 UF.sub.6 to enhance the narrowing and separation of the absorption bands of .sup.235 UF.sub.6 and .sup.238 UF.sub.6 ;
exciting the .sup.235 UF.sub.6 to at least the 3.nu..sub.3 level by irradiation with photons;
admixing at least one reactant gas with the mixture of .sup.235 UF.sub.6 and .sup.238 UF.sub.6 ;
reacting the at least one reactant gas and the excited .sup.235 UF.sub.6 to form a compound containing .sup.235 U-enriched Uranium;
collecting the compound containing .sup.235 U-enriched Uranium on the at least one collector surface in the output section;
and
removing the compound containing .sup.235 U-enriched Uranium from the flow chamber.

11 more elements

A process for separating a first isotopic gaseous molecule from a gaseous mixture of first and second isotopic molecules in a flow chamber, the flow chamber having:

defining walls;
an input section;
an excitation section for introducing photons of at least one predetermined frequency into the flow chamber downstream from the input section;
and
an output section downstream of the excitation section, the process including the steps of:
feeding the gaseous mixture of first and second isotopic molecules and an inert carrier gas into the input section of the flow chamber for flow through the excitation section so that the gaseous mixture of first and second isotopic molecules is restricted from reactive contact with the defining walls of the flow chamber in the excitation section thereof;
cooling the gaseous mixture of first and second isotopic molecules to enhance the narrowing and separation of the absorption bands of the first and second isotopic molecules therein;
multi-step exciting the first isotopic molecule by irradiation with multiple photons of predetermined frequencies as the first isotopic molecule flows through the excitation section;
contacting at least one reactant gas with the excited first isotopic molecule to assure an enhanced reaction between the at least one reactant gas and the excited first isotopic molecule to thereby form a compound containing enriched first isotope;
impinging the compound containing enriched first isotope on a collector surface in the output section for collection thereon;
and
removing the compound containing enriched first isotope from the output section.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Crisla process

Life of this patent

Crisla process

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims36