US developments in technology for uranium enrichment

The purpose of this paper is to review recent progress and the status of the work in the United States on that part of the fuel cycle concerned with uranium enrichment. The United States has one enrichment process, gaseous diffusion, which has been continuously operated in large-scale production for the past 37 years; another process, gas centrifugation, which is now in the construction phase; and three new processes, molecular laser isotope separation, atomic vapor laser isotope separation, plasma separation process, in which the US has also invested sizable research and development efforts over the last few years. The emphasis in this paper is on the technical aspects of the various processes, but the important economic factors which will define the technological mix which may be applied in the next two decades are also discussed