Molybdenum isotopes separation using squared-off optimized cascades

Abstract

Recently molybdenum alloys have been introduced as accident tolerating materials for cladding of fuel rods. Molybdenum element has seven stable isotopes with different neutron absorption cross section used in various fields, including nuclear physics and radioisotope production. This study presents separation approaches for all intermediate isotopes of molybdenum element by squared-off cascades using a newly developed numerical code with Salp Swarm Algorithm (SSA) optimization algorithm. The parameters of cascade including feed flow rate, feed entry stage, cascade cut, input feed flow rate to gas centrifuges (GCs), and cut of the first stage are optimized to maximize both isotope recovery and cascade capacity. The squared off and squared cascades are studied, and the efficiencies are compared. The results obtained from the optimization showed that for the selected squared off cascade, Mo94 in four separation steps, Mo95 in five steps, Mo96 in six steps, Mo97 in seven steps, and Mo98 in two steps are separated to the desired concentrations. The highest recovery factor is obtained 63% for Mo94 separation and lowest recovery factor is found 45% for Mo95.

Keywords

• Squared-off cascade
• Intermediate isotopes
• Salp swarm algorithm optimization
• Molybdenum element
• Multicomponent separation