JPS63134638A - Metal separator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently recover metals with a small-sized device by ionizing part of the metal vapors evaporated from a mixture to form cations, recovering said ions with a perpendicular cathode plate, allowing the neutral metal which is not ionized to rise as it is and recovering the same on an inclined anode plate. CONSTITUTION:The inside of a vacuum vessel 1 is maintained under a prescribed pressure and the mixture 2 composed of U235(X) and U238(Y) in an evaporation crucible 3 is heated and evaporated by electron rays 5 of an electron gun 4. The rising metal vapors are converged by a converger 6 having a slightly large through-hole 7. A laser ray 21 of a specific frequency is projected to the converged metal vapors X, Y to ionize, for example, U235(X) to the cations X<+>. The cations are attracted to the heated perpendicular cathode plate 9 and are stored through a trough 13 into a recovering vessel 14. On the other hand, remaining U238(Y) rises in the neutral state without being ionized and collides against the heated anode plate 10 which diagonally shade a diffusion region 11 for the metal vapors. Said metals sticks onto the anode plate and is recovered through a trough 16 in a recovering device 17. The metals are thus efficiently separated and recovered by using the small-sized device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a metal separator that separates metal vapor by ionizing it with a laser beam or the like.

[Prior Art] As shown in Fig. 2, a conventionally used metal separator is
Metal C to be separated in evaporation crucible b installed in vacuum container a
is heated and evaporated by an electron beam d, and the metal vapor converged by a concentrator e is irradiated with a laser beam r of a specific frequency to ionize the target metal, which is recovered by a pair of ionized metal recovery electrodes 9, and the remaining ionized metal is ionized. The remaining neutral metals are recovered by a neutral metal recovery plate above the ionized metal recovery electrode g.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in such a conventional metal separator, in order to pass the metal vapor between the electrodes 9 for recovering ionized metal, the metal vapor must be condensed by the concentrator e, and the metal vapor is evaporated by heating. Some of the metal that has been removed cannot pass through the concentrator e. Therefore, the utilization rate of the invested thermal energy was low.

In addition, since the neutral metal recovery plate is placed above the ionized metal recovery electrode 9, the overall height becomes high, and due to the nature of the vacuum vessel a, the diameter of the body must also become large, resulting in an overall large size. I had left it behind.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention was made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned conventional problems and providing a small and efficient metal separator. A concentrator is provided above the crucible, a passage for ionizing radiation for ionizing metal vapor is secured above the concentrator, and a cathode plate for recovering ionized metal is provided substantially perpendicularly above the passage; The present invention relates to a metal separator characterized in that it is provided with an inclined anode plate for recovering neutral metals that can block metal vapor passing through a convergent device and diffusing.

[Operation] The metal vapor that has passed through the collimator is partially ionized by the ionizing irradiation radiation, becomes positive ions, and is collected by the vertical cathode plate. Neutral metals that do not ionize rise as they are and are collected on the inclined anode plate without hitting the vertical cathode plate.

[Example] Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which an evaporation crucible 3 containing metals 2 to be evaporated made of a plurality of metals is installed in a vacuum container 1, and an electron gun 4 attached to the bottom of the evaporation crucible 3. The electron beam 5 is sent through an annular electron beam guide or the like so that the metal 2 to be evaporated can be heated and evaporated.

A convergence device 6 is disposed above the evaporation crucible 3, and the convergence device 6
A passage 8 through which a laser beam or an electron beam of a specific frequency can pass is secured above the passage lower part, and a cathode plate 9 and an anode plate 10 are disposed above the passage 8.

The cathode plate 9 stands approximately vertically at a position away from the diffusion region 11 where the metal vapor diffuses upward through the concentrator 6, and has a built-in heater 12 therein.
A gutter 13 is provided at the lower end of the cathode plate 9 to guide the ionized metal flowing down the surface of the cathode plate 9 to an ionized metal collector 14 .

Further, the anode plate IO is arranged obliquely so as to completely obliquely obstruct the diffusion region 11, and has a built-in heater 15, and is further provided with a gutter 16 at the lower end of the anode plate IO, so that the neutral The neutral metal flowing down the surface of the anode plate 10 is introduced into the metal recovery device 17.

In the figure, 18 is a vacuum pump, 19 is a valve, and 20 is a vacuum line.

With the above configuration, valve 1 of the vacuum line 20
9 is opened and the inside of the vacuum container 1 is pumped by the vacuum pump 18 for about 10 minutes.
The metal to be evaporated 2, which is a mixture of uranium 235 (X) and uranium 238 (Y), in the evaporation crucible 3 is created by creating a vacuum of 6 Torr and irradiating the electron beam 5 from the electron gun 4 while being bent by a magnetic field. When the metal vapor is heated and evaporated, the metal vapor rises, passes through the passage hole 7 of the convergent device 6, and is converged.

Since the passage hole 7 has a relatively large diameter, most of the evaporated metal vapor can pass through the passage hole 7.

The metal vapors X and Y converged by the concentrator 6 are irradiated with a laser beam 21 having a specific frequency, for example, a frequency capable of ionizing uranium-235(X), and the uranium-235(X) is ionized into positive ions (X+) and the cathode Attracted to board 9.

Most of the remaining uranium 238 (Y) rises further as it remains neutral without being ionized, hits the anode plate 10 that obliquely blocks the metal vapor diffusion region 11, and is completely deposited and collected on the anode plate 10. .

Since the cathode plate 9 is erected slightly in front of the diffusion region 11 and approximately vertically, almost no particles other than ionized metal cations (X") that are electrically attracted to it adhere to it, and the built-in heater 12, the highly purified uranium 235(X) flows down the surface of the cathode plate 9, passes through the gutter 13, and is stored in the ionized metal collector 14.

Moreover, since the neutral metal Y deposited on the anode plate 10 and recovered is heated by the anode plate 10 or the heating heater 12, it flows down the lower surface of the anode plate 10, passes through the gutter 1B, and enters the neutral metal recovery unit L7. will be collected.

Note that the metal separator of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and can be applied not only to the separation of isotopic metals such as uranium, but also to the separation of dissimilar metal mixtures, ionization removal of small amounts of impurities, etc. Of course, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention, such as heating by a helical coil or Joule heat as the heating means for the evaporation crucible.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the metal separator of the present invention exhibits various excellent effects as described below.

(D) The cathode plate was placed upright away from the metal vapor diffusion area, and the anode plate was placed to block the metal vapor diffusion area, so ionized metals were collected on the cathode plate, and neutral metals were collected on the anode plate. It will be collected.

(ID Since the cathode plate is set up almost vertically and the anode plate is arranged diagonally, it is possible to separate the evaporated metal even if the diffusion area is wide, there is no need to narrow it down with a convergence device as in the past, and the evaporation crucible The steam generated can be efficiently separated, improving thermal efficiency.

[Phase] Since it serves as both the anode plate and the neutral metal recovery plate, there is no need to arrange the neutral metal recovery plate above the electrode plate as in the past, and the overall height is reduced.

■ Since the overall height is lowered by [phase], the whole can be made smaller, and even if the separation capacity is to be increased, it can be made smaller than before, making it possible to manufacture a separator with a large separation capacity.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the metal separator of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a conventional metal separator. ■ is a vacuum vessel, 3 is an evaporation crucible, 6 is a concentrator, 9 is a cathode plate, 10 is an anode plate, 11 is a diffusion region, 13° and 16 are gutter,
14 is an ionized metal recovery device, and 17 is a neutral metal recovery device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) A convergence device is installed above the evaporation crucible installed in a vacuum container, a path for ionizing radiation for ionizing metal vapor is secured above the convergence device, and ionization is carried out approximately perpendicularly above the path. 1. A metal separator comprising a cathode plate for recovering metals and an inclined anode plate for recovering neutral metals capable of blocking metal vapor passing through the convergent device and diffusing.