Separation of xenon stable isotopes using square cascade

Abstract

Among the noble gases, Xenon isotopes are the most widely used. So far, no specific strategy has been published for separating all Xenon stable isotopes with the highest number of stable isotopes. In this research, a computational code, SQCAS, is prepared to determine the target isotope separation strategy in light or heavy current. The prepared code investigates the separation of the natural isotopes in proportion to the feed concentration by changing the parameters of the square cascade and modeling it at each step. All stable isotopes of natural xenon are separated using a square cascade in 32 steps for the certain feed (200kg). The proposed square cascade has 20 stages. In each stage, 10 centrifuges were used. Also, the separation factor for the unit mass difference in this research equals 1.2. Using this strategy, the enrichment of nine isotopes increases from 0.9393, 0.0009, 0.01917, 0.2644, 0.408, 0.2118, 0.2689, 0.1044, and 0.087 to 98.72%, 91.3%, 92.79%, 92.63%, 83.77%, 90.12%, 91.64%, 95.68%, and 99.04%, respectively. The results show that the highest recovery is related to the end isotopes, and the lowest recovery is related to Xe-135 isotope.

Keywords

• stable isotopes
• separation
• square cascade
• gas centrifuge
• xenon
• recovery