1. Status of the Nd-150 enrichment project
Corinne Augier – Serge Jullian – Dominique Lalanne – Fabrice Piquemal
Presented by Serge JULLIAN
LAL Orsay
Université Paris-Sud 11, Faculté des Sciences d’Orsay et IN2P3/CNRS
IDEA meeting – 19&20 November 2007
ENS Paris

2. Status of the Nd-150 enrichment project
Plan
Interest of 150Nd for bb studies
MENPHIS in France: short description
SNO+/SuperNEMO: new Nd-150 collaboration
Conclusions
Presented by Serge Jullian – NEMO/SuperNEMO – LAL Orsay, France
IDEA meeting – 19&20 November 2007 – ENS Paris

3. Interest of 150Nd for bb studies

4. 150Nd is the best for G0 phase space factor
Factor of merit of 150Nd
Activity = A A0 =  M0 2 x G0 (Z, Q) x < m>2
Isotope
Q (MeV)
Isotopic abundance (%)
G0(y-1) x 1025
48Ca
4.271
0.187
2.44
76Ge
2.040
7.8
0.24
82Se
2.995
9.2
1.08
96Zr
3.350
2.8
2.24
100Mo
3.034
9.6
1.75
116Cd
2.802
7.5
1.89
130Te
2.528
33.8
1.70
136Xe
2.479
8.9
1.81
150Nd
3.367
5.6
8.00
150Nd is the best for G0 phase space factor
Constraint on 222Rn and 214Bi : NO
Activity comparison: 100 kg of 150Nd equivalent to kg of 76Ge
0 to the excited state: phase space available at Q = 2.7 MeV
Nuclear matrix element?
M0 (SUSY): 150Nd the best

5. MENPHIS in France:
short description

6. MENPHIS description
Achievements of the French SILVA uranium enrichment program A. PETIT, G. BORDIER, P. LEMAIRE et al., CEA
SILVA/AVLIS?
Gaseous diffusion
Ultracentrifugation

7. 235U + 3 photons  235U+ + e- Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (1/4)
Selective photoionization
235U + 3 photons  235U+ + e-
Choosing an efficient
photoionization scheme is a very difficult task 
3 wavelengths l1, l2, l3

8. Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (2/4)
depleted U
collecting plate
enriched U
collecting plate
photoionizing laser
beam
vapour jet
( natural U)

9. Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (3/4)
light-vapor
interaction volume
enriched U collectors
depleted U collector
enriched U
stream
depleted U stream
feed stream
reflux
electron beam gun
water cooled crucible

10. Basics of the SILVA/AVLIS process (4/4)
Copper Vapor pump Lasers
and YAG oscillators
Beam shaping with closed loop
(steering, centering, wavefront)
Beam transport
Dye lasers
(oscillators - Amplifiers)
Beam folding system
Vapor plume
(U nat)
Product collectors
Waste collector

11. Milestones of the AVLIS process (USA)
1972: Beginning of the AVLIS Project at Los Alamos
1992: 150 kg (2%); 112 hours (9 hours full flow)
: Work on Gd and Er
1997: 400 hours (280 hours for enrichment)
1999: the AVLIS program is stopped in USA

12. 2000–2003 Program: MENPHIS facility
Evaporator
Dye laser chain
Yag laser
Copper vapor laser
Design : 2001
Building : 2002
1st test: early 2003
1st full scale exp.: June 2003

13. MENPHIS enrichment experiment results
Main results for the process :
204 kg of enriched uranium at  2.5 % mean (predicted) value
About 2000 kg natural U evaporated
 400 “on line” assay measurements

14. SNO+/SuperNEMO:
new Nd-150 collaboration

15. Conclusions of the SNO+/SuperNEMO meeting
Joint SNO+/SN meeting, Idaho State University, Idaho (US)
 6-8 November 2007
Status of the projects:
SNO+: phase 1 with natural neodymium (natNd)
SuperNEMO: phase 1 with enriched selenium (82Se)
Joint effort:
 150Nd production with MENPHIS
 chemical purification of 150Nd (radiopurity)
Common interest for liquid scintillator use (LAB) and chemical purification
New collaboration called Nd-150

16. Conclusions
Nd-150 collaboration is opened to other members
A step which could help to a new operation of the MENPHIS facility
THANK YOU