Development of advanced concepts for improved heavy water production technology

Two strongly differing processes for deuterium isotope separation continued under active experimental development during the reporting period. Compound development continued for chromatographic hydrogen isotope separation using intermetallic hydrides. Inexpensive alloys with calcium completely substituted for lanthanum showed good separation factors with fast equilibration times. Macroscopic separation of deuterium was achieved in a small laboratory column. Improved reactants were selected for the IR-laser deuterium halide-olefin addition reactions. An extensive chemical, spectroscopic and photochemical survey has been nearly completed to select the optimum working compound for the IR-laser deuterium separation process utilizing multiphoton dissociation. Several compounds have been selected for further detailed evaluation. Several new conceptual schemes for deuterium separation are presented.