Isotope Separation Using Metallic Vapor Lasers

This invention relates to an improved method and means of separating an isotope such as the isotope U.sup.235 from an isotope mixture such as a mixture of U.sup.235 and U.sup.238, and more particularly to improvements therein.

As the number of nuclear power generating plants being to increase with the increasing demand for electric power and the decreasing availability of fossil fuels as well as their increased costs, the need for larger production of U.sup.235 becomes very apparent.

Attainment of increased production by the construction of more plants, using the present day diffusion process, would require a very large expenditure of funds and natural resources. For example, the most massive plant built to date covers 74 acres, requires 500 million gallons of water daily, and cost $791 million to build. It is estimated that to build the added plant capacity, estimated as being required by 1990, using the diffusion process, an investment of 7 billion dollars (without inflation) would be required.

An alternative process to the gas diffusion process is the centrifuge process. While this latter process is not much cheaper, it uses much less electricity and thus is more attractive.

What is required is an isotope enrichment process that will be orders of magntidude lower in costs and energy consumption than either the gas diffusion or gas centrifuge process.

In a U.S. Pat. No. 3,772,519 there is described a process for separating U.sup.235 from U.sup.238 by applying two photon beams to a collimated beam of atoms of the two isotopes to excite and ionize the U.sup.235 and thereafter using a magnetic field and a current pulse to separate out U.sup.235 from the atom base. This photoionization technique is still not an efficient way to achieve isotope separation, because of the low absorption cross-section for photoionization. This implies a very long absorption length and a high laser intensity for obtaining sufficiently fast ionization. Photoionization is also described in a U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,087.

An object of this invention is to provide a method and means of isotope separ070000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000