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Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235 U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation.Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 U with 99.2732–99.2752% natural abundance), uranium-235 (235 U, 0.7198–0.7210%), and uranium-234 (234 U, 0.0049–0.0059%).
The 2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation drama The Code uses "Laser Uranium Enrichment" as a core plot device. The female protagonist Sophie Walsh states that the technology will be smaller, less energy-intensive, and more difficult to control once it is a viable alternative to current methods of enrichment. Ms.
Other methods of separation were more practical at that time, but this method was designed and used in South Africa for producing reactor fuel with a uranium-235 content of around 3–5%, and 80–93% enriched uranium for use in nuclear weapons.
In this method, an infrared laser is directed at uranium hexafluoride gas (if enrichment of uranium is desired), exciting molecules that contain a U-235 atom. A second laser, either also in the IR (infrared multiphoton dissociation) or in the UV, frees a fluorine atom, leaving uranium pentafluoride which then precipitates out of the gas.
The gas leaving the container is somewhat enriched in the lighter molecules, while the residual gas is somewhat depleted. A single container wherein the enrichment process takes place through gaseous diffusion is called a diffuser. Uranium hexafluoride. UF 6 is the only compound of uranium sufficiently volatile to be used in the gaseous ...
Iran is "dramatically" accelerating its enrichment of uranium to up to 60% purity, close to the roughly 90% level that is weapons grade, U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi told Reuters on ...
The US used to get most of its enriched uranium from Russia. Now scientists and companies are racing to produce it at home. The US is dismantling nuclear warheads to power the next generation of ...
PARIS (Reuters) -Iran's acceleration in its enrichment of uranium to close to bomb grade is "extremely serious", has no civilian justification and contradicts Tehran's assertions on wanting ...