How Uranium is enriched?
Two types of process are there for enrichment of Uranium. 1. Gaseous Diffusion 2. Gas centrifuge In the gaseous diffusion enrichment plant, the solid uranium hexafluoride (UF6) from the conversion process is heated in its container until it becomes a liquid. The container becomes slightly pressurized as the solid melts. Because the container is not completely full UF6 gas then fills the top of the container. The UF6 gas is slowly fed into the plants pipelines where it is pumped through special filters called barriers or porous membranes. The holes in the barriers are so small that there is barely enough room for the UF6 gas molecules to pass through. The isotope enrichment occurs when the lighter UF6 gas molecules (with the uranium-234 (U234) and U235 atoms) tend to diffuse faster through the barriers than the heavier UF6 gas molecules containing uranium-238 (U-238). One barrier isnt enough to do the job, though. It takes many hundreds of barriers, one after the other, before the UF6 g
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