AEC Gaseous Diffusion Plant Operations; ORO-658
Washington DC: United States Atomic Energy Commission, 1968. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus. Wraps. i, [1], 45, [1] pages. Footnotes. Formula. Illustrations. Tables. Figures. Appendices. Cover has some wear and soiling. Gaseous diffusion is a technology used to produce enriched uranium by forcing gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) through semipermeable membranes. This produces a slight separation between the molecules containing uranium-235 and uranium-238. By use of a large cascade of many stages, high separations can be achieved. It was the first process to be developed that was capable of producing enriched uranium in useful quantities. Gaseous diffusion was devised by Simon and Kurti at the Clarendon Laboratory in 1940, tasked by the MAUD Committee with finding a method for separating uranium-235 from uranium-238 in order to produce a bomb for the British Tube Alloys project. This work was transferred to the U. S. when Tube Alloys was subsumed by the Manhattan Project. The preparation of UF6 feedstock for the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant was the first ever application for commercially produced fluorine, and significant obstacles were encountered in the handling of both fluorine and UF6. For example, before the K-25 gaseous diffusion plant could be built, it was first necessary to develop non-reactive chemical compounds that could be used as coatings, lubricants and gaskets for the surfaces that would come into contact with the UF6 gas. The Manhattan Project recruited William T. Miller, a professor of organic chemistry at Cornell University, to synthesize and develop such materials, because of his expertise in organofluorine chemistry. Miller and his team developed several novel non-reactive chlorofluorocarbon polymers that were used in this application. The gaseous diffusion technique then became the preferred technique for producing enriched uranium. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Gaseous Diffusion, Separative Work Unit, Enriched Uranium, Uranium Enrichment, Oak Ridge, Paducah, Portsmouth, Special Nuclear Materials, USAEC, U-235, U-238, AEC, Nomographs, Enrichment Services, Operating Cost, Unit Cost
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