Michele Kearney's Nuclear Wire

Major Energy and Environmental News and Commentary affecting the Nuclear Industry.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

New Nuclear Technology and Nuclear Proliferation. by Charles Barton

New Nuclear Technology and Nuclear Proliferation.

During World War II the United States spent a large amount of money on developing nuclear technology. Much of that investment went into industrial systems designed to separate U-235 from U-238, or to transform U-238 into Pu-239. Here such systems were built in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, My childhood hometown. The Uranium separation technologies were gaseous diffusion, thermal diffusion and electromagnetic separation. In addition, Plutonium was produced in the Graphite Reactor. Of the 4 technologies, thermal diffusion was the least successful.

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