Vacuum arcs for plasma centrifuge isotope enrichment

Requirements for economic plasma centrifuge isotope enrichment are reviewed. A distributed-discharge vacuum arc in chromium, as reported by A.I. Vasin et al. (1979), is described and a qualitative model for its operation is given. Experiments were performed on a modified distributed-discharge vacuum arc in which the parameters appear to be well suited for plasma centrifuge operation. A 2-m-long, 10-cm-diameter fully ionized DC chromium arc was produced with ion density and temperature in the range of 10¹³ cm^-3 and 0.16 eV. Chromium mass throughput rates in the range of 1 g/min are reported, with continuous running times of up to 40 min., limited only by chromium supply