Characteristics of the Gas Centrifuge for Uranium Enrichment and Their Relevance for Nuclear Weapon Proliferation
نویسنده
چکیده
This article presents an analytical model, originally developed in the 1980s, for the gas centrifuge and uses this methodology to determine the main design and operational characteristics of several hypothetical centrifuge designs. A series of simulations for a typical first-generation machine is used to assess the relevance of important breakout scenarios, including batch recycling and cascade interconnection, using either natural uranium or preenriched material as feedstock.
منابع مشابه
Characteristics of the Gas Centrifuge for Uranium Enrichment and Their Relevance for Nuclear Weapon Proliferation (corrected)
This article presents an analytical model, originally developed in the 1980s, for the gas centrifuge and uses this methodology to determine the main design and operational characteristics of several hypothetical centrifuge designs. A series of simulations for a typical first-generation machine is used to assess the relevance of important breakout scenarios, including batch recycling and cascade...
متن کاملThe gas centrifuge and nuclear weapons proliferation
© 2008 American Institute of Physics, S-0031-9228-0809-020-0 The most difficult step in building a nuclear weapon is the production of fissile material. One can either make plutonium-239 in a nuclear reactor or enrich uranium to increase the abundance of its fissile isotope uranium-235. Historically, enrichment has been the more obscure of the two routes, but the recent spread of one technology...
متن کاملThe Gas Centrifuge and the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons
The gas centrifuge is a particularly challenging technology for the institutions of the existing nonproliferation regime. Centrifuge facilities can be reconfigured for the production of weapon-grade uranium in a comparatively short time-frame, while clandestine facilities are virtually impossible to detect with technical intelligence tools. A potential expansion in nuclear power and the natural...
متن کاملAdvancing Methods for Providing Attribution for the HEU Used in a Terrorist Nuclear Weapon
An algorithm was developed that uses measured isotopic ratios from fission product residue following the detonation of a high-enriched uranium nuclear weapon to compute the original attributes of the nuclear material used in the device. The specific attributes assessed are the uranium isotopics (considering U, U, U, and U) and the type of enrichment process used to create the material (e.g., ga...
متن کاملComputational Analysis of Signatures of Highly Enriched Uranium Produced by Centrifuge and Gaseous Diffusion
Different enrichment processes have been used historically to produce highly enriched uranium (HEU) for weapon purposes. The most relevant ones are the gaseous diffusion process and the gas centrifuge. The two exploit different physical principles to separate isotopes of different molecular weight. It could therefore be expected that HEU might carry an isotopic signature that is unique to the e...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
عنوان ژورنال:
دوره شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2008