Multiphysics modeling, study, and analysis of atmospheric pressure plasma-based mass separation system for high-level radioactive waste treatment
Date
2024-02-01
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Abstract
Disposing and storing increasing High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLRW) volume is challenging and costly. Frequently, a large mass of this storage volume is low or non-radioactive elements. For high-level liquid waste, the total waste mass, if grouped into amu mass, 98.9% is for bulk elements with 1–65 amu, 0.7% is for fission products with 80–160 amu, and 0.4% is for actinides with 225–250 amu. Of this waste, 99.7% of the radioactivity comes from the fission products, while substantial bulk elements contribute only 0.1% of the radioactivity. Therefore, clean separation as a group of elements may significantly reduce the HLRW storage volume and maintenance cost. In the case of Spent Fuel (SF), over 95% of the mass is transuranium elements, and only 4–5% is fission products. Here, a clean mass group separation to recover uranium and other transuranium elements from the waste may optimize the nuclear fuel cycle. Traditional chemical separation of actinides from SF for recycling frequently creates a higher volume of waste to manage. Plasma mass separation divides ions according to their atomic or molecular mass in a plasma device. According to T. Ohkawa and colleagues, the principle of the band gap ion mass filter (BGIMF) states that using a combination of an axial magnetic field and a radial or azimuthal electric field, the ions in a plasma can be radially separated according to mass. Mass separation frequently takes place in a high vacuum environment. An atmospheric pressure plasma mass separator may have further advantages over high vacuum plasma separation. Rather than separating individual atoms of an element, an atmospheric pressure plasma mass separator can be utilized to process HLRW and separate waste elements into mass groups for proper management. This research concentrates on separating High-Level Radioactive Waste (HLRW) using a Plasma Mass Separation System (PMSS) and explores the physics and technology requirements using the COMSOL multiphysics tool. While PMSS can handle various Radioactive Waste (RW) types, the focus here is on HLRW. The study designs a universal plasma mass separation device operating in noble gas atmospheric pressure Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP).