Uranium enrichment

Uranium isotope separation science, technology in the field of industrial applications, and laboratory investigations of uranium isotope separation are treated in this book. Basic concepts for the mathematical treatment of the cascade separation processes and an original presentation of ideal nonsymmetric cascades are treated in the chapter entitled, Cascade theory. The chapter entitled, Gaseous diffusion, discusses this process which is the main industrial process for uranium enrichment today as well as an in depth treatment of the gas flow through the porous barrier and the relevant separation effects. The chapter on the centrifugation process covers essentially the conceptual and theoretical aspects of the process. An overall description of the separation nozzle process including both the physical principle and the technical aspects are discussed. The last two chapters in the book are devoted to new methods of uranium separation which are still in the laboratory stage. The laser method in which separation is obtained through selective photoexcitation of uranium atoms or molecules is treated in one chapter, and the other chapter deals with separation experiments with rotating plasmas and some advanced concepts like using ion cyclotron resonance effects to achieve isotope separation