Particulate Capture of Plutonium by High Gradient Magnetic Separation With Advanced Matrices

Abstract

A high performance superconducting magnetic separator is being developed for near single particle retrieval from low concentration field collected samples. Results show that maximum separation is obtained when the effective matrix element diameter approaches the diameter of the particles to be captured. Experimentally, we were able to capture very dilute levels of 0.2 to 0.8 m PuO 2 particles with dodecane as a carrier fluid. The development of new matrix materials is being pursued through the deposition of nickel dendrites on an existing stainless steel matrix material. The new materials are promising for the submicron collection of paramagnetic particles. Results indicate that these new matrices contain a high number of capture sites for the paramagnetic particles. We have also derived a force-balance model that uses empirically determined capture cross section values. The model can be used to optimize the capture cross section and thus increase the capture efficiency. This enables the prediction of high gradient magnetic separator performance for a variety of materials and applications.

Water purification using magnetic assistance: A review

“…Direct plutonium colloid capture was carried out using specially designed steel wires as magnetic filtration bed material. The use of nickel dendrites grown on SS wires enabled reduction in background field requirement from 7 to 2 T for the capture of particles [91,92]. Table 3 gives a list of volume susceptibilities of typical components of radioactive wastes.…”

Capture and Retrieval of Plutonium Oxide Particles at Ultra-Low Concentrations Using High-Gradient Magnetic Separation

“…In addition, acid etched and nickel dendrite-coated ESSW were also used and the preparation is described elsewhere. [15,16] Scanning electron micrographs (SEMs) in Fig lengths) were packed with matrix material at 0.90 void fraction. Plutonium oxide (PuO 2 ) was obtained from ongoing work at Los Alamos National Laboratory.…”

“…[9 -15] Currently, the Department of Energy (DOE, NN-20, Office of Nonproliferation and National Security) is developing separation technologies for the nondestructive capture and retrieval of actinide particles from samples of interest. [16] Trace quantities of lanthanides and actinides emitted from nuclear processing facilities can hydrolyze under environmental conditions to yield colloidal or submicron hydrous oxide particles. [17] Colloidal material will remain suspended in water bodies due to the near neutral pH of the water and small particle size of the hydrolyzed material.…”

Experimental design of application of nanoscale iron–nickel under sonication and static magnetic field for mixed waste remediation

“…The present paper also gives an experience on degradation of organics using nanoscale iron-nickel. Magnetically assisted chemical processing has been demonstrated for several applications in separation sciences, synthesis methods and catalytic methods [31][32][33][34]. Iron has an intrinsic magnetic moment.…”