JPH0368424A - Isotope separator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate operating control by equipping a weight measuring mechanism for measuring the weight of an isotope which has been stuck on the surface of a product recovering electrode and recovered therefrom. CONSTITUTION:A metallic raw material 3 incorporating an isotope is heated by electron beams 7 projected from an electron gun 6 and evaporated to form the vapor flows 10. The generated vapor flows 10 are guided to the direction of a product recovering electrode 16 by collimaters 11. The passages of the vapor flows of the product recovery electrode 16 are irradiated with laser beams 12. Only the specified isotope atom incorporated in the vapor flows 10 is selectively excited and becomes an ionized isotope 13. The ionized isotope 13 is attracted to the directions of the cathodes 15 by an electric field formed by the product recovering electrode 16 and recovered. Further the vapor flows 10 incorporating nonionized neutral atoms pass through the electrode 16 and are collected on a vapor flow collecting plate 17. Thereby the weight of recovered isotope can be properly recognized.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an isotope separation device, and in particular, an Ia device that can appropriately grasp the amount of recovered isotope products during operation.
By establishing a structure! We will move on to the isotope valve 1ift device, which facilitates the operation management of A and B.

<Prior art> Isotope force using the gas diffusion method, nozzle method, or centrifugal fraction 111 method using the difference in chemical properties between isotopes or the 7'2 m difference! ! ! The equipment has been operated conventionally.

However, all conventional devices have low separation efficiency per monomer, so in order to reduce a specific isotope to a predetermined level of 1XJ degrees, it was necessary to repeat the same separation process in multiple stages in a cascade system. .

However, isotope separation equipment using the laser method, which selectively ionizes specific isotopes using laser light and electrically separates the ionized isotopes, has a very high separation efficiency per unit, so conventional There is little need to assemble a cascade, and '1l=t' is small and economical.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the structure of a conventional isotope separation apparatus using a laser method. In the figure, an isotope separation apparatus 1 consists of a vacuum container 2 that airtightly houses a main body and various devices that make up the main body.

The raw metal R3 containing isotopes of multiple scales is stored in an evaporation crucible 4 having thermochemical resistance. A cold 1'' pipe 5 is embedded in the evaporation crucible 4 to adjust the temperature of the raw material. An electron beam 7 is emitted from the filament 6a of the electron gun 6 onto the metal raw material 3 housed in the evaporation crucible 4.
is continuously irradiated. The electron beam 7 is deflected by an in-width magnetic field Fliff 8 provided inside the electron gun 6 and is irradiated onto the molten liquid surface 9 of the metal raw material.

The metal raw material 3 that has been exposed to the irradiation Q4 of the electron beam 7 is heated and evaporated through a molten state, thereby continuously producing an isotope vapor flow 10. The generated vapor flow 10 is guided in a predetermined flow direction by a collimator 11.

Laser light 1 selectively excites only a specific isotope that is characterized by recovery with respect to the vapor flow 10 that has reached the upper part.
2 is irradiated. As this laser beam 12, a monochromatic laser beam having a frequency corresponding to a resonance absorption line of a specific isotope is employed. The specific isotope C and L electrons irradiated with the laser beam 12 are ejected and become an ionized isotope 13 having a positive charge. This ionized isotope 13 is transferred to the positive electrode 1
4 and a negative T electrode 15 are arranged alternately.
When passing through the electric field space formed between them, only the ionized isotope 13 is deflected to the surface of the negative mold 15 and is adsorbed and collected. On the other hand, neutral atoms such as isotopes that are not ionized travel straight between the electrodes without being affected by the electric field, and are collected by the vapor R collection plate 17 disposed above the product collection electrode 16.

The product isotope adsorbed and collected by the product collection electrode 16 is appropriately collected from the vacuum container 2 together with the electrode plate and collected.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In this way, in conventional isotope separation devices, in order to measure the recovered weight of product isotopes adsorbed to the product recovery electrode, it is necessary to stop the device and maintain a vacuum state in the vacuum container. After the pressure was released and returned to atmospheric pressure, the entire electrode plate was taken out and measured, which has the disadvantage that the measurement operation and the restart operation of the device are complicated.

By the way, it is extremely important to understand the recovered product isotopes in order to determine the frequency of product recovery and the quality of the operating conditions of the equipment. However, the pattern of the product isotope attached to the product recovery electrode changes greatly due to minute fluctuations such as the arrangement of the electrode plates and the occurrence of meteors in the metal raw material vapor. Therefore, even when the isotopic force 1111 device δ is operated under the same operating conditions, the weight of the jaws adhering to the electrode plate often varies greatly.

Therefore, it is difficult to determine at what point after the start of operation of the device, the product should be collected and taken out.

On the other hand, frequently stopping the equipment and taking out the product recovery electrode from the tube will not only reduce the operating efficiency of the equipment, but also cause the vacuum state to be released, the product recovery electrode to be taken out, and the electrode to be removed from the VV again.
It takes a long time to return to the original vacuum state
1 of pressure reduction operations were required, and in any case there was a problem in that the operational management of the arrangement would be fnM.

The present invention was developed in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to recover product isotopes attached to the product recovery electrode while maintaining the reduced pressure state in the vacuum container even during operation of the device. The purpose of this study is to provide an isotope separation device that can appropriately grasp the isotope separation properties and simplify the operation and management of the device.

[Structure of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve the above object, an isotope separation device according to the present invention is a steam generation device that generates a steam flow by heating and vaporizing a metal raw material that produces a plurality of types of isotopes. selectively ionizing a specific isotope contained in the vapor flow by using a product recovery electrode formed by arranging a positive electrode and a negative T electrode facing each other parallel to the flow direction of the vapor flow, In an isotope separation device in which a specific ionized isotope is deflected by the electric field formed between the product collection electrodes and collected by adhering to the surface of the product collection electrode, the collected isotope is deposited on the surface of the product collection electrode. It is characterized by being equipped with a weight measurement mechanism that measures weight.

(Function) According to the isotope separation device having the above configuration, since it is equipped with the ff!extm mechanism that measures the tli of the isotope collected on the surface of the product collection electrode, the device is operated.
Even when the system is stopped, the recovery rate of product isotopes can be appropriately determined without breaking the vacuum state inside the vacuum container.

This makes it easier to judge whether the operating conditions of the equipment are good or not, and to determine when to collect product isotopes.
Management and maintenance are extremely good! l is primed.

(Example) Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of an isotope separation apparatus according to the present invention. Note that the same elements as those in the conventional example shown in FIG. 3 are given the same reference numerals, and redundant explanation thereof will be omitted.

That is, the isotope separation apparatus according to the present embodiment includes a steam generation device 18 that generates a vapor flow 10 by heating and vaporizing a metal raw material 3 that contains a plurality of types of isotopes, and a vapor generation device 18 that generates a vapor flow 10 parallel to the flow direction of the vapor flow 10. and a product recovery electrode 16 formed by arranging a positive electrode 14 and a jIiii8i15 facing each other, selectively ionizing a specific isotope contained in the vapor flow 10, and transferring the ionized specific isotope to the Product recovery electrode 1
Product collection electrode 1 is deflected by the electric field formed between 6 and 6.
The isotope separation device J3 is equipped with a furrow measuring mechanism 19 for measuring the weight of the isotope deposited and collected on the surface of the product collection electrode 16.

The ff1ffl meter Weight 1 for measuring the weight of electrode 15...
8I21... and a display device 22 that numerically displays the weight measuring mechanism from each weighing scale 21. In addition, in a normal scale isotope separation device, the product recovery electrode 1
Since the weight of the product recovered at 6 is approximately ωG,i,K91'Ii, the weight of the product can be measured with sufficiently high accuracy if the weighing scale 21 has normal accuracy.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the electrode holding member 20 has one end supported in a detachable and tiltable manner by a locking fitting 23 fixed to the inner wall of the vacuum container 2, and the other free end is supported by a weight scale 23.
It is detachably suspended by 1.

Next, the effect will be explained.

A metal raw material 3 containing multiple types of isotopes is heated and evaporated by an electron beam 7 emitted from an electron gun 6 to form a vapor flow 10, as shown in FIG. The generated vapor flow 10 is guided by a collimator 11 in the direction of the 4-item recovery 'I3 pole 16. The vapor flow path of the product recovery electrode 16 is irradiated with laser light 12, and as a result, only specific isotope atoms contained in the vapor flow 10 are selectively excited and become ionized isotopes 13. The ionized isotope 13 is the product recovery electrode 16
The electric field formed between them attracts and collects the particles in the direction of the cathode 15.

On the other hand, the vapor flow 1QLt containing neutral atoms that are not ionized passes through the product recovery electrode 16 and is collected by the vapor flow collection plate 17.

The 1 of the ionized isotope 13 adsorbed and collected on the surface of the static elimination 4fi 15 of the product collection electrode 16 is absorbed by the weight measurement mechanism 19.
weight (measured by iH121, the weight measuring mechanism is simultaneously transmitted to the display device
T is displayed numerically.

The operator can determine the optimal time to take out the product to the outside of the vacuum container 2 based on the magnitude of recovery of the product isotope displayed on the display device 22.

As described above, according to the isotope 5>separation fl a according to the present embodiment, the weight St ll! is used to measure the weight of the product isotope collected on each cathode 15 of the product collection electrode 16. Since the I1 mechanism 19 is equipped, it is possible to appropriately check the product recovery status while maintaining the reduced pressure state in the vacuum container 2 even during V4 operation.

Therefore, it becomes easy to judge whether the operating conditions of the device are appropriate and to determine the optimal time to take the product out of the device, making it extremely easy to manage the operation and maintenance of the isotope separation device 1a, and furthermore, to Operational efficiency can be significantly improved.

In the above embodiment, a weighing scale 21 is attached to each of the negative electrodes 15 constituting the product recovery Ti14i16. However, if there is no large variation in the amount of product recovered at each cathode 15..., 1
It is also possible to configure a weight measurement mechanism by attaching a weight scale 21 to only one cathode 15.

[Effect of R-light] As explained above, according to the isotope separation device according to the present invention,
Product recovery 12 Measure the weight of the recovered isotope attached to the electrode surface a.
Since it is equipped with a weighing scale 1111 mechanism that performs IJ, the recovered weight of the product isotope can be appropriately determined without breaking the vacuum state inside the vacuum container even when the apparatus is in operation or stopped.

Therefore, it becomes easy to determine whether the operating conditions of the device are good or not, and whether to recover the product isotope, and the operation management and maintenance of the isotope separation device are extremely simplified.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the isotope separation device according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along arrow 7fl at J3 in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a conventional isotope separation device. FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the configuration. 1.1a... Isotope separation device, 2... Vacuum container, 3
...Metal raw material, 4...Evaporation crucible, 5...Cooling tube, 6...Electron gun, 7...Electron beam, 8...Bending magnet 12 device, 9...Melted liquid Surface, 10... Steam flow,
11... Collimator, 12... Laser light, 13...
- Ionized isotope, 14... Positive electrode, 15... Negative electrode, 16... Product collection electrode, 17... Vapor flow collection plate, 18... Steam generator, 19... Weight measurement mechanism,
20... Electrode holding member, 21... Weight scale, 22...
-Display device, 23...locking metal fitting. Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] A product recovery device formed by a steam generation device that heats and evaporates metal raw materials containing multiple types of isotopes to generate a steam flow, and a positive electrode and a negative electrode arranged oppositely in parallel to the flow direction of the steam flow. selectively ionizes a specific isotope contained in the vapor flow, deflects the ionized specific isotope by an electric field formed between the product recovery electrodes, and collects the ionized isotope by adhering to the surface of the product recovery electrode. An isotope separation device characterized in that the isotope separation device is equipped with a weight measurement mechanism that measures the weight of the isotope adhered to and collected on the surface of a product recovery electrode.