USING FUSION | NDE
Left: Isotope separation capabilities are expected to yield value in nuclear waste management
The biggest single segment for NDE is imaging
manufactured parts and looking for defects. An example where neutron radiography is actively used is in establishing that the small cooling channels in turbine blade tips are patent and not blocked, a relatively common manufacturing defect that could result in a catastrophic failure in service. SHINE has developed a range of fusion technology-based
devices to generate radiography images, as well as serve other markets. “We have deuterium-deuterium devices, some of which we have even sold. Then we have proton- beryllium sources and then we have deuterium-tritium fusion sources, which are our brightest and most potent sources of neutrons,” he says. Their current fusion device is an ion beam type in which
a particle beam of deuterium ions is accelerated to about 320KeV and fired into a gaseous target to generate a scatter of neutrons. Piefer explains: “Our first-generation technology I would
characterise as a particle beam-solid target. The current generation is particle beam-gas target fusion device. Our DT fusion devices don’t generate a lot of power, maybe 150 W, but that’s not nothing and it’s a pretty bright neutron source at that. At full capacity we should be able to generate tens of millions of dollars of revenue. That gives you an idea of just how much more valuable the neutrons are versus the electricity.” As he says: “Fusion is not all pie in the sky, we have used it and its offshoots to create value already.” However, while the imaging technology was developed
several years ago as SHINE’s first-generation business, operational under its sister company, Phoenix Neutron Imaging, the company is now moving into what at calls phase two. Again, this relies on neutrons from fusion but with greater intensity they are being used to drive an isotope production process. “In phase one, we were able to generate enough
neutrons to take pictures, but not really enough to alter matter in a material way. We needed to increase the fusion output enough to get from phase one to phase two so that we could start to alter small amounts of matter – transmutation. In particular, we’re looking at turning elements that aren’t very valuable into elements that are extremely valuable,” says Piefer. The mythical transmutation of base metals into gold,
alchemy, has long since been surpassed. Says Piefer: “We could spend our time turning lead into gold, but it turns out the cost of that would be far more expensive than the
gold but there are materials that are hyper valuable that are worth doing. For example, we can take uranium that we buy for $6 a gramme and turn it into molybdenum-99 which is worth about $150 million per gramme. The value of that material is that it ultimately decays into technetium-99m, which can be injected into the human body to illuminate disease. There are actually about 30 different diagnostic tests performed with that single isotope.” Recognising the incredible value available from
molybdenum 99, SHINE broke ground on a new production facility in 2019. “We’ve built a large-scale production facility here in the United States. It will be the biggest isotope production facility in the world, capable of generating about 20 million doses of molybdenum 99 per year. To put it in perspective, 20 million doses is about 2 grammes,” he says. “We’re using the neutrons to alter matter, but on a pretty
small scale,” notes Piefer, adding that in the longer term the company aims to use fusion neutrons to produce other therapeutic isotopes such as lutetium-177 that is produced by irradiating ytterbium 176. “Lutetium 177 is really useful for cancer therapy. That is worth $1 to $2 billion per gramme today,” he says. To step up the neutron production from fusion to go
from radiography applications to transmutation required the switch from solid target sources to gases target sources. Piefer says: “We’re now using gas target sources for both the isotope plant and for radiation effects testing in the non-destructive testing business. We could do radiography with the solid target sources but making that gaseous target source work was the key innovation that allowed us to expand into transmutation Isotope production. You get about 10 times as many neutrons per unit power with the gas target versus the solid targets”. He adds: “A higher intensity of neutrons also makes the imaging process that much better, you can go to much higher power densities and it’s more efficient.” The transmutation process is also opening the door to
the company’s third phase of development. Piefer explains that as part of the transmutation process
target is irradiated in a fusion neutron field for about 5.5 days. “It’s an aqueous target – uranium salt dissolved in liquid,” he says. A series of radiochemical separations follows to extract medically pure isotopes from that irradiated uranium solution. “We’ve got really good at handling highly-radioactive uranium streams and selectively separating out materials of value from that stream for the medical business and it turns out those are the same skill sets we need for phase three. It is the next scale in our
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