Theoretical Analysis of Ternary UF6Gas Isotope Separation by Centrifuge

Abstract

This paper concerns a theoretical analysis of the isotope separation in a centrifuge for the ternary gas mixture which includes 236U besides 235U and 238U. The expressions for the diffusion velocities are used to derive diffusion equations in terms of the mole concentration and of the mass average velocity. The concentration distributions of the ternary UF6 gas isotopes are calculated by numerically integrating the above diffusion equations with the aid of a flow field for an appropriate model centrifuge. A value function for two of any species in a multicomponent mixture is defined as a natural extension of the value function for a binary mixture. Furthermore, a total value function for the whole multicomponent mixture is defined as a linear combination of the obtained value function. The results of numerical calculations show that the total separative power for the ternary gas isotopes mixture derived from the total value function is an effective expression for the evaluation of centrifuge separation pe...