Uranium enrichment by ultra-centrifugation

According to 1993 data, the ultra-centrifugation process provides about 40% of the worldwide enrichment production. The principal advantages of this process are: its low energy consumption (20 to 50 times lower than for the gaseous diffusion process), the modular character of factories, a very short equilibrium time, its adaptability to re-enrichment of recycled uranium and to the industrial production of stable isotopes for medical, pharmacological or fundamental research applications. This paper describes successively: the principle of the process, an industrial centrifuge and the technological and scientific problems related to its design (counter-current flow, critical resonance frequencies, optimal control..). (J.S.). 1 fig