Morteza Imani

Stable Isotope Separation – Industrial Project

Senior Process Engineer & team lead at the Advanced Technologies Company (Iran), in collaboration with the Nuclear Research Technology Institute. This program delivered a pilot 20-centrifuge IR-1 square cascade for Tellurium-130 and custom software for cascade design and optimization. Due to confidentiality, this page provides a high-level overview; theoretical results are linked below.

Process Design Optimization & Algorithms Industrial R&D

What we built

  • Process design & lead for a 20-centrifuge square cascade (IR-1) pilot for Te-130.
  • Custom simulation & optimization for square, squared-off, and transient single-withdrawal cascades.
  • Concept → pilot commissioning with operability and quality constraints.

Outcomes

  • Pilot implemented; project commercialised domestically.
  • Peer-reviewed papers on cascade theory & optimization (PSO, GWO, SSA, ANN).
Role
Senior Process Engineer (team lead)
Org
Advanced Technologies Company × Nuclear Research Technology Institute
Focus
Process design, model development, optimization, pilot delivery

Technical scope

Custom modelling

Multicomponent transport in square & transient cascades; validated against literature.

Optimization

PSO / GWO / SSA and ANN surrogates to minimise feed and tune cuts/withdrawals.

Engineering limits

Holdup, interstage cuts, equipment bounds embedded into the search.

Selected publications

  • Progress in Nuclear Energy (2021) — Flexible square cascade optimisation (enhanced PSO). DOI
  • Annals of Nuclear Energy (2022) — Overall optimisation of square & squared-off cascades (Te-123). DOI
  • Nuclear Engineering and Technology (2023) — 180W separation via transient SW cascade (Salp Swarm). DOI
  • J. Nuclear Research & Applications (2023) — Grey Wolf optimisation for middle-isotope separation. PDF
  • Progress in Nuclear Energy (2020) — Effect of holdup & cascade shape in NFSW cascades. DOI