Plasma Magnetic Filter for Mass Separation

Large nuclear waste treatment processing plants are in operation and under construction to convert waste into safe environmentally storable solid waste forms. The waste material has been stored for several decades and now large qualities are awaiting to be disposed of. This will take many years and cost many billions of dollars. Much of the radioactivity comes from the high mass elements while most of the weight are lower mass elements. A new concept for a plasma mass filter has been developed that could separate out material above a pre-determined mass. The plasma is formed in a linear plasma device such as a helicon. The magnetic topology at the ends of the device are designed to have different confinement properties such that ions above the critical mass exit at one end and ions below the critical mass exit at the other end. This differs from existing plasma mass filters or centrifugal mass separators in that they deposit the differing masses in the radial direction. We have an existing helicon plasma source with a magnetic field of about 1 kG. In Phase I we propose to design modifications to our existing plasma source in order to demonstrate the plasma mass filter concept. In Phase II we would modify the helicon as required from our Phase I study. This would include adding additional magnetic field coils and diagnostics to provide a flexible experimental test of the concept. We would explore the operational space of the device and demonstrate the mass separation capabilities of the concept. If successful mass separation of the waste could effectively separate out the high level radioactive waste subject to vitrification. This could significantly lower the cost and time to safely dispose of the nuclear waste.