Ultimate Purification of the Uranium Element (Popular Science Chapter, Skip If You Dislike It)

A note in advance: most of the relevant knowledge covered in this chapter came from publicly available materials on the official website of the China Academy of Engineering Physics.

Richard read on, his eyes moving across the pages.

"The first method for purifying Uranium-235 is the Electromagnetic Separation Method, which uses the principles of a mass spectrometer for isotope separation.

A mass spectrometer is an instrument used in laboratories to analyze the masses of charged particles. It causes particles with different masses but the same charge to have different radii of deflection when entering a magnetic field, thereby separating them.

To explain in detail, a particle enters a magnetic field at velocity v—assuming it is moving upward. The magnetic field lines produced by the motion of a positively charged particle point upward on the left side of its direction of travel and downward on the right. As a result, the magnetic field on the left side of the moving charged particle is strengthened, while the magnetic field on the right is weakened, forming a magnetic field gradient that creates magnetic pressure pushing from left to right.

This force is perpendicular to the direction of velocity. Although it cannot change the magnitude of the moving charged particle's speed, it can change the direction of its motion, creating centripetal force.

Furthermore, because the magnetic field is uniform, the magnetic pressure exerted on the moving charged particle is equal everywhere, causing the charged particle to undergo uniform circular motion within the magnetic field.

According to electromagnetic formulas, the force exerted by the magnetic field equals qBv, while centripetal acceleration equals v2/R.

Therefore, it can be derived that: qBv=Mv2/R→qBR=Mv.

In the formula, q is the particle's charge, v is the particle's velocity, M is the particle's mass, B is magnetic flux density, and