Possibility of ultra-intense laser transmutation of 93Zr (γ, n) 92Zr a long-lived nuclear waste into a stable isotope

The possibility of photonuclear transmutation of 93Zr, a highly radioactive nuclear waste with a half-life of 1.53 million years, into 92Zr its stable isotope, through a (γ, n) reaction has been analytically evaluated in this paper. By focusing Intensities more than 1020 W/cm2 onto a solid target, high energy electron generation, Bremsstrahlung and photonuclear reactions have been observed. Using the available data, the number of reactions that produced 92Zr, have been analytically calculated. In addition, this work has shown that the laser intensity, irradiation time and repetition rate of laser have strong and direct effects on the yield of 92Zr and the number of reactions. Irradiating a 93Zr sample by a laser with the intensity of 1021 W/cm2 and 5 × 1021 W/cm2, and the repetition rate of 10 Hz for an hour, the number of reactions obtained are, 1.44 × 106 and 4.38 × 107, respectively. Finally, we evaluate the optimal intensity of laser to produce the maximum number of reactions. However, beyond the optimal intensity, this effect is very slow.