Molecular laser isotope separation versus atomic vapor laser isotope separation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnueene.2004.07.002Get rights and content

Abstract

In this work, the competitive molecular and atomic laser isotope separation methods are investigated to evaluate the potential of each une for more economical fuel fabrication of enriched uranium celas which can be practically used in light water reactors (LWR). The advantages, drawbacks and feasibility of various techniques of laser isotope separation including AVLIS and the main MLIS methods such as MOLIS, CRISLA, and SILARC techniques have been reviewed. Laser isotope separation (LIS) deserves an intensive research, because laser techniques have a number of advantages over traditional ones, such as highly selective elementary separation event, possibility of separating the required isotope, low energy consumption, short start up time and practically single-stage production, which may economize fuel processing [11.

References (27)

  • M.R. Humphries

    Laser isotope separation of zirconium atoms cooled in a supersonic beam

    Chemical Physics Letters

    (1985)
  • E.P. Velikhov

    Isotope separation by multi-photon dissociation of molecules by high power C02 laser radiation

    Sov. J. Quantum Electronics

    (1979)
  • F.J. Duarte

    Tunable Lasers

  • Vincent Kierman

    Nuclear Fuel Corporation finally gets nod to go private

    Laser Focus World

    (Oct. 1997)
  • Vincent Kierman

    US Enrichment Corp. shuts down AVLIS

    Laser Focus World

    (Aug. 1999)
  • I.L. Bass

    High-average-power dye laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

    Applied Optics

    (1992)
  • M. Benedict

    Nuclear Chemical Engineering

    (1981)
  • F.H.M. Faisal

    Theory of Multi-photon Processes

  • W. Demtroder

    Laser Spectroscopy

    (1996)
  • C.N. Banwell

    Fundamentals of Molecular Spectroscopy

    (1989)
  • O. Svelto

    Principles of Lasers

    (1996)
  • H.D. Bohm

    Hyperfine structure and isotope shift measurments on 235U and laser separation of uranium isotopes by two-step photoionization

    Optics Communications

    (Aug. 1978)
  • F.S. Becker et al.

    The practical and physical aspect of uranium isotope separation with lasers

    Nuclear Technology

    (1982)
  • Cited by (19)

    • Some issues of industrial scale boron isotopes separation by the laser assisted retarded condensation (SILARC) method

      2017, Separation and Purification Technology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Let us briefly compare available laser assisted methods on the basis of two criteria: overall efficiency of using the energy for isotope separation, and efficiency of isotopes harvesting. Laser assisted methods comprise MOLIS, Ref. [14], Chemical Reaction by Isotope Selective Laser Activation–CRISLA, Ref. [15], and selection of isotopes by laser excitation (SILEX): Condensation Repression by Isotope Selective Laser Activation (CRISLA-2) scheme (in this paper this scheme is called as SILARC), Refs. [16,17], http://www.silex.com.au/businesses/silex. All these methods are based on the selective excitation of target isotopes by the laser radiation.

    • A computational study of adsorption and vibrations of UF6 on graphene derivatives: Conditions for 2D enrichment

      2015, Carbon
      Citation Excerpt :

      The relative differences between spectra due to different U isotopes may still be small (about 10−5 for electronic spectra), but the availability of highly-coherent lasers permits selective excitation. The two laser-driven enrichment technologies that have been thoroughly studied and have potential for commercialization are AVLIS [4] and MLIS/SILEX [5] processes. AVLIS (Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) is based on electronic excitations, with the required coherency on the order of 10−5.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text