10/31/2014 Enrichment, Page 2 | Nuclear Safeguards Education Portal

http://nsspi.tamu.edu/nsep/courses/the-nuclear-fuel-cycle/front-end-of-the-fuel-cycle/enrichment/enrichment,-page-2 1/1
<<Previous Page Next Page>>
THE NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
INTRODUCTION
> > FRONT END OF THE FUEL
CYCLE
INTRODUCTION
MINING
MILLING
CONVERSION
> > ENRICHMENT
FUEL FABRICATION
FUEL IRRADIATION AND FUEL
STORAGE
BACK END OF THE FUEL
CYCLE
Figure 8. Gaseous Diffuser
Figure 9. Gas Centrifuge
Enrichment, Page 2
The following are some of the most commonly used methods for the
enrichment of uranium:
1. Gaseous Diffusion. This method employs UF
6
gas and was the
first enrichment method to be deployed commercially in a large
scale. This technique uses thin barriers with very small holes inside
of a device called a diffuser. Each diffuser can be very large in size.
UF
6
gas is pushed against the barrier and the UF
6
molecules that
contain the lighter U-235 atoms tend to move through the holes
more than the UF
6
molecules that contain the heavier U-238 atoms.
Thus, the UF
6
gas on the downstream side of the barrier will be very slightly enriched in U-235. A
diffuser has an of no more than 1.0043. So to reach even 3% enriched product from a natural uranium
feed, the material must pass through thousands of barriers. While this was the primary technique used
for the production of enriched uranium during most of the latter half of the 20th century, it is generally
being phased out in favor of the gaseous centrifuge technique.
2. Gaseous Centrifuge. This technique employs a large
number of small machines referred to as centrifuges.
A centrifuge is simply a device that spins at high speed and
separates light materials from heavy materials through the use
of centrifugal force (i.e., the heavier material spins to the
outside). UF6 gas is passed into the centrifuge. The gas then
spins at a high rate of speed (anywhere from 1000 to 100,000
rpm depending upon the quality and design of the centrifuge).
The heavier mass waste material is then skimmed from the
outside of the centrifuge and the lighter mass product material
is extracted from the closer to the inside of the centrifuge.
A centrifuge can have an as high as 1.4 which means that to
produce the same enrichment far fewer centrifuge stages are
needed than diffuser stages. However, the flow rate through
each centrifuge machine is very low compared to the flow rate
through a single diffuser; so many centrifuges must be
connected in parallel to create the same total feed rate. In
general, gaseous centrifuge enrichment facilities have lower
power consumption and require less space than gaseous
diffusion facilities.
3. Electromagnetic Isotope Separation (EMIS). This is the
earliest form of uranium enrichment developed. The technology is essentially based on the same
concept as a mass spectrometer. In this enrichment method, U (usually in the form of UCL4) is ionized,
accelerated via an electrostatic field, and then passed through a magnetic field. The ions in the magnetic
field will then bend due to the Lorentz Force and the lighter mass ions will bend with a shorter radius than
the heavier mass ions. The ions are then collected to acquire the product material. Devices used in this
method are often called calutrons.
4. Laser Isotope Separation (including AVLIS and MLIS). In this method, uranium metal is turned into
a gas by passing a current through a uranium filament. The uranium gas is then bombarded
by photons from a finely-tuned laser. The laser can be tuned such that it excites electrons only from U-
235. This is due to the slightly different electron orbitals in U-235 compared to U-238 due to the mass
difference of the two atoms. The gas is then subjected to an electrostatic field and the ionized U-235
atoms are collected. This technology has only been developed in laboratory scale and to date no
industrial facilities have implemented it.
Page 12 / 26