A method and system for separating radioactive waste containing volatiles, into light ions and heavy ions, includes a loader/transporter for transferring the waste into a high vacuum environment in the chamber of a plasma processor. During this transfer, gases of the volatiles are released from the waste, collected in a holding tank, and subsequently ionized in the chamber. As the volatiles are ionized, the ions are directed by a magnetic field into contact with the waste to vaporize the waste. The waste vapors are then ionized in the plasma processor chamber to create a multi-species plasma which includes electrons, light ions and heavy ions. Within the chamber, the density of the multi-species plasma is established to be above its collision density in order to establish a substantially uniform velocity for all ions in the plasma. A nozzle accelerates the multi-species plasma to generate a fluid stream which is directed from the chamber toward an inertial separator. A magnetic field in the inertial separator effectively blocks electrons in the stream from entering the separator. On the other hand, the inertia of the various ions in the stream carry them into the separator where they are segregated into light ions and heavy ions according to their atomic weights. After segregation, the heavy ions are vitrified for subsequent disposal.
This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/970,548, filed Nov. 14, 1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,029. The contents of application Ser. No. 08/970,548 are incorporated herein by reference.
A band gap mass filter for separating particles of mass (M.sub.1) from particles of mass (M.sub.2) in a multi-species plasma includes a chamber defining an axis. Coils around the chamber generate an axially aligned magnetic field defined (B=B.sub.0 +B.sub.1 sin .omega.t), with an antenna generating the sinusoidal component (B.sub.1 sin .omega.t) to induce an azimuthal electric field (E.sub..theta.) in the chamber. The resultant crossed electric and magnetic fields place particles M.sub.2 on unconfined orbits for collection inside the chamber, and pass the particles M.sub.1 through said chamber for separation from the particles M.sub.2. Unconfined orbits for particles M.sub.2 are determined according to an .alpha.-.beta. plot ##EQU1## where .OMEGA..sub.0 is the cyclotron frequency for particles with mass/charge ratio M, and wherein .OMEGA..sub.0 =B.sub.0 /M and .OMEGA..sub.1 =B.sub.1 /M.
