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Gas Centrifuge




The gas centrifuge is a Hyper-centrifuge used to produce Enriched Uranium . It requires far less energy to achieve the same separation than the older Gaseous Diffusion process, which has been largely replaced.

The gas centrifuge uranium enrichment process uses a large number of rotating cylinders in series and parallel formations. Centrifuge machines are interconnected to form trains and Cascade s. In this process, UF6 gas is placed in a cylinder and rotated at a high speed. This rotation creates a strong centrifugal force so that the heavier gas molecules (containing U-238) move toward the outside of the cylinder and the lighter gas molecules (containing U-235) collect closer to the center. The stream that is slightly enriched in U-235 is withdrawn and fed into the next higher stage, while the slightly depleted stream is recycled back into the next lower stage. Significantly more U-235 enrichment can be obtained from a single unit gas centrifuge than from a single unit gaseous diffusion stage.

  • Large cascades of gas centrifuges are operated by France , Germany , the United Kingdom , and China to produce enriched uranium both for domestic use and for export, and by Japan for domestic use. A demonstration gas centrifuge plant is being built at Piketon, Ohio in the US by USEC for operation in 2005 , and a full-size plant is planned for operation in 2010 .

  • Pakistan nuclear program developed the P1 and P2 centrifuges -- the first two centrifuges that Pakistan deployed in large numbers. The P1 centrifuge uses an aluminum rotor, and the P2 centrifuge uses a maraging steel rotor, which is stronger, spins faster, and therefore enriches more uranium per machine than the P1 centrifuge's aluminum rotor.

  • Recently it was revealed that Iran enriched unranium using a 164 P-1 centrifuge cascade. Iran also acquired the P-2 design from Pakistan and tried to develop P-2 centrifuge.



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