Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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%).
Compared to current enrichment technologies, SILEX obtains a higher enrichment. Hence fewer stages are necessary to reach bomb grade uranium (> 90% 235 U). According to GLE, each stage requires as little as 25% of the space of the conventional methods. Hence it would facilitate to rogue governments to hide a production facility for bomb uranium ...
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.
The US used to get most of its enriched uranium from Russia. Now scientists and companies are racing to produce it at home.
Orano, the France-based parent company of Orano USA, is a world leader in the nuclear fuel supply chain, from its uranium mines in Canada, Kazakhstan and Niger, to its methods of recycling used ...
A second method of laser separation is known as molecular laser isotope separation (MLIS). 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.
The Honeywell Uranium Hexafluoride Processing Facility, a uranium conversion facility, is located 1.9 miles (3 km) northwest of Metropolis, Illinois, United States. The plant, Honeywell Specialty Chemicals in Metropolis, Illinois, has a nominal capacity of 15,000 tU as uranium hexafluoride per year.
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 ...