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The Y-12 facility began operating in November 1943, separating uranium-235 from natural uranium, which is 99.3% uranium-238, by using calutrons to perform electromagnetic isotope separation. Y-12 separated the uranium-235 for Little Boy, the nuclear weapon that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945.
The Uranium Processing Facility construction site at Y-12 is pictured after giants cranes were removed. The massive project is now expected to cost $10.3 billion and not be completed until 2031 ...
The 325,000-square-foot Manhattan Project-era facility is one of nine uranium enrichment process buildings constructed at Y-12. Its removal by the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management ...
Y-12 is the leading U.S. facility for processing uranium and lithium for nuclear weapons parts. It is also a key player in global nuclear security. It is also a key player in global nuclear security.
The situation was made trickier because Bechtel is building the Uranium Processing Facility at Y-12 as a subcontractor to CNS. [2] The primary issues that led to the contract cancellation were repeated failures to meet safety and security standards, with criticality safety and cyber security, being particular concerns.
Y-12 initially enriched the uranium-235 content to between 13 and 15 percent and shipped the first few hundred grams of this to the Manhattan Project's weapons design laboratory, the Los Alamos Laboratory, in March 1944. Only 1 part in 5,825 of the uranium feed emerged as final product; much of the rest was splattered over equipment in the process.
The Manhattan Project was the beginning. Today, uranium work at Y-12 goes beyond nuclear weapons
K-25, where uranium was enriched by the gaseous diffusion process until 1985, was demolished in 2013–15. Two of the four major facilities created for the wartime bomb production remain standing: Y-12, originally used for electromagnetic separation of uranium, is used for nuclear weapons processing and materials storage.