Plasma Mass Filters For Nuclear Waste Reprocessing
Authors: Abraham J. Fetterman and Nathaniel J. Fisch
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.
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Submitted to: Energy (May 2011)
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Download PPPL-4627 (pdf 441KB 8pp)
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