Rotation of a Plasma Jet by High-Frequency Electromagnetic Fields and Its Use for Mass Separation

Equations are derived that describe the characteristics of the azimuthal motion and radial expansion of a plasma jet under the action of a rotating transverse magnetic field of a dipole configuration in a longitudinal static magnetic field. The analysis is carried out both in the multicomponent approximation and based on MHD equations considering the Hall effect. Based on the obtained dependences of the circumferential and radial ion velocities on magnetic field values, the separation characteristics of a direct-current plasma centrifuge are estimated for the separation of a two-component binary mixture simulating spent nuclear fuel (SNF). It is shown that the concentration of the heavy uranium–plutonium component in the sampling flow can be increased from the initial 96 to 99.8% with the extraction degree of the fuel component of 0.87.