ORNL-5388 - the Molten Salt Energy Technologies Web Site

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The Component Preparation Laboratories (CPL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Torrance,
California, were built to evaluate, improve and demonstrate techniques amenable to the
mass production for manufacturing centrifuges. This facility became operational in
early 1974.
The Component Test Facility (CTF) was designed to demonstrate the machine reli-
ability and operability testing of substantial numbers of centrifuges in a cascade
operation. Construction was begun in 1972 and the first phase of startup of the facility
was completed in January 1977 with cascade operation of about one-half of the machines
operating. The remaining machines were operable within a few weeks later.
of the CTF is significant, about 50,000 SWU/yr, or about the annual enriching requirement
for a 500 MW power reactor.
The capacity
The Advanced Equipment Test Facility (AETF), in addition to being a reliability
test facility will also test the plant subsystems which support the machines.
machines to be installed in this facility will have significantly greater separative
work capability than those in the CTF.
of 1978.
The
The AETF is expected to be operable in the spring
In Europe, the URENCO organization, consisting of participants from England,
Germany, and Holland, has a program that so far has been directed toward machine reliability
and long lifetime. URENCO is currently producing about 200 MTSWU/yr from
plants at Almelo, Holland and Capenhurst, England. Expansion of these facilities is
planned by 1982. The URENCO group expects to have 2000 MTSWU/yr in operation, 1300
MTSWU/yr at Almelo, and the remaining 700 MTSWU/yr at Capenhurst.
The Becker Separation Nozzle
The Becker process,9 being developed in Germany by Dr. E. W. Becker and his
associates, uti1 izes the pressure gradient developed in a curved expanding supersonic jet
to achieve separation in a gas mixture. The separation nozzle stage is shown schematically
in Fig. A-2. A light gas, helium or hydrogen, is added to the UF6 in order to increase
the velocity of the jet. As the expanding jet traverses the curved path, the heavier
component is enriched in the vicinity of the wall. A knife edge divides the jet into two
fractions--one enriched in the light component, and the other enriched in the heavy
component--which are then pumped off separately from the stage. A1 though the separation
obtained per stage is relatively high (~1.025)~ many separation nozzle stages are needed
to obtain an appreciable enrichment. This process avoids the problems associated with
the fine-pored membrane required for gaseous diffusion, and those associated with the
high-speed rotating parts of the gas centrifuge.
It does suffer, however, from the
disadvantage of a relatively high power requirement, primarily because a great deal of
light gas must be recompressed between stages along with the UF6 process gas.