高エネルギー特集 １ プラズマ・レーザー利用 （２） レーザーによるウラン濃縮

Abstract

In uranium enrichment by lasers in which the isotope shift, a very small difference of light absorbing frequency between isotopes is utilized, uranium 235 is excited selectively by lasers and separated from uranium 238. Therefore, the separation ef-ficiency is to be very high basically.Two kinds of technique using uranium atom and UF6 molecular have been in-vestigated and are called AVLIS (Atomic Vapor Laser Isotope Separation) and MLIS (Molecular Laser Isotope Separation), respectively. This paper explains briefly their principles, element devices and the status of the investigation into laser uranium enrichment in foreign countries and Japan.Development of the element devices by LASER-J is also mentioned.In the develop-ment of the laser system which is composed of copper vapor lasers and dye lasers, and the separation system of crucible, linear electron beam gun, uranium collectors and so on, the targets for a small pilot plant of LASER-J have been attained on the output power of lasers and electron beam gun, materials etc. These components will be further improved on the durability and the efficiency, and applied to the small pilot plant which aimes to achieve about 1tSWU/year capability with four wave three stage separation scheme.