Separation Potentials for Multicomponent Isotopic Mixtures

A general principle is proposed for introducing multicomponent potentials by summing the separative power of the elements that divide the partial flows of binary mixtures consisting of pairs or sets of isotopes. It is shown that under different assumptions about the character of the separation process this method can be used to determine the well-known as well as new forms of separation potentials. A computational experiment is used to determine the potentials that best correspond to the separative processes in R- cascades and optimal cascades with minimum total flow and prescribed external concentration of the target isotope.