Abstract
Stable isotope separation has an interesting history that blossomed largely due to efforts during World War II at Oak Ridge National Laboratory where machines called calutrons were used for enriching uranium isotopes for the Manhattan Project. Calutrons enriched isotopes by first producing ions, then separating the ions based on their charge-to-mass ratios. Due to their general principle of operation, the calutrons were adapted after the war toward the enrichment of isotopes of other elements, ultimately enabling many novel applications. Despite their remarkable productivity over a 50-year period, the U.S. decommissioned the last of its calutrons in 1998 due to their massive energy consumption. In this chapter, we give an overview of the history and applications of stable isotope separation, particularly focusing on the calutron program in the U.S. We then outline the general principles for MAGIS and define criteria for convincingly demonstrating its viability as a replacement for the calutron.
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Notes
- 1.
The website for the National Isotope Development Center includes limited documentation on news related to stable isotope separation in the United States. See http://www.isotopes.gov/news/hot.html.
- 2.
Vanadium and tantalum each have just two stable isotopes with one of the isotopes being less than 1 % abundant.
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Mazur, T.R. (2016). Introduction. In: Magnetically Activated and Guided Isotope Separation. Springer Theses. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23956-9_1
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