Uranium enrichment by gas centrifuge

Directorate-General For Research And Innovation European Commission Directorate-General For The Information Society And Media

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Nuclear energy and safety
Energy research

Informations

• Publié par: DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-RESEARCH-AND-INNOVATION-EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-DIRECTORATE
• Nombre de lectures: 49
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

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Commission of the European Communities
nuclear science
and technology
Uranium enrichment
by
gas centrifuge Commission of the European Communities
nuclear science
and technology
Uranium enrichment
by
gas centrifuge
I. D. Heriot
Urenco Limited
18 Oxford Road
Marlow
Bucks. SL7 2NL
United Kingdom
Study conducted on behalf of the Commission of the European Communities, Brussels,
under contract No EC1-1466-B722.3-86-UK
PARI. H . -¡.th.
Directorate-General
Science, Research and Development
!/1988 EUR 11486 EN Published by the
COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
Directorate-General
Telecommunications, Information Industries and Innovation
Bâtiment Jean Monnet
LUXEMBOURG
LEGAL NOTICE
Neither the Commission of the European Communities nor any person acting on
behalf of then is responsible for the use which might be made of the
following information
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1988
ISBN 92-825-8960-9 Catalogue number: CD-NA-11486-EN-C
© ECSC-EEC-EAEC, Brussels • Luxembourg, 1988
Printed in Belgium Acknowledgement s
The author would like to thank his many colleagues in
Urenco Limited, Centec GmbH, British Nuclear Fuels
pic, Ultra-Centrifuge Nederland NV, and Uranit GmbH
for their advice and helpful comments during the prepa­
ration of this report.
Thanks are also due to the following for permission to
use original material in the preparation of certain illus­
trations:
J.C. Guais, Cogema, France (Figure 16)
Philip G. Sewell, Department of Energy, USA
(Figures 17, 18 and 23)
K. Schubert, Kernforschungszentrum, Karlsruhe,
Germany (Figure 19)
J.W.L. de Vilhers, Atomic Energy Corporation
of South Africa Limited (Figures 20 and 21)
Kenji Yuge, Asahi Chemical Industry Company
Limited, Japan (Figure 22).
Ill CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 The Role of Enrichment
1.2 Separative Work 2
1.3 Requirements for Separative Work 4
1.4 Enrichment Supplies to EC 7
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION AND PHYSICAL PRINCIPLES 11
2.1 Basic Separation Principles 1
2.2 Separative Power6
2.3 Early Developments7
2.4 Moderns9
2.5 Cascades 23
2.6 Large Scale Plant Design
2.6.1 General Principles
2.6.2 Process Description
2.6.3 Main Plant Systems 35
2.6.4 Major Sub-Divisions
2.6.5 General Layout7
2.6.6 Other Facilities8
2.6.7r Technical Concepts
STATUS OF CENTRIFUGE ENRICHMENT PROJECTS 39
3.1 Europe 3
3.1.1 Urenco9
- FRG
- The Netherlands
- UK 40
- Treaty of Almelo1
- Urenco Plant Construction Programme 4I
3.1.2 Other European Developments 47
3.2 USA
3.3 Japan
3.3.1 Background 49
3.3.2 Pilot Plant 50
3.3.3 Demonstration Plant
3.3.4 Large-Scale Plant1
3.3.5 Summary Programme2
- V -COMPARISON WITH OTHER TECHNOLOGIES 53
4.1 General 5
4.2 Gas Diffusion4
4.3 Centrifuge7
4.3.1 Overview
4.3.2 Technical Status 5
4.3.3 Development Potential
4.3.4 Plant Size8
4.3.5 Power
4.3.6 Reliability
4.3.7 Cost 59
4.4 Laser Separation Process
4.4.1 Laser Potential
4.4.2 AVLIS 60
4.4.3 MLIS3
4.5 Aerodynamic Processes6
4.6 Chemical Processes 70
4.7 Miscellaneous 7
4.8 Relative Economic Comparisons
4.9 Technical Strategy Considerations4
RECYCL E OF REPROCESSED URANIUM 77
5.1 Scale of Business 77
5.2 Technical Aspects of Recovered Uranium 79
232- U 7
234- U 81
235- U
236- U
- Transuranic Alpha Emitters 83
- Fission Products
5.3 Strategies for Use
5.3.1 Strategies Possible
5.3.2 Storage 8
5.3.3 Re-enrichment by Gas Diffusion 84
5.3.4t by Gas Centrifuge5
- Present Status7
- Future Prospects8
5.4 Active Waste
VI -6. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 90
6.1 General Principles 9
6.2 Diameter3
6.3 Speed4
6.4 Length5
6.5 Separation Efficiency7
6.6 Economic Manufacture8
6.7 Development History <k Future Prospects ... . 9
7. SAFETY 100
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Radiological Safety
-.3 Chemical Safety1 I .
I, r.4 Control of UF6
7.5 Vulnerability to External Events 102
- Electrical Power 10
- Auxiliary Systems
- Fire and Explosion2
- Floods , • 10
- Seismic Events3
- Exceptional Weather
- Aircraft Crash 10
7.6 Criticality
8. SAFEGUARDS4
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Implementation of Safeguards 105
8.3 Safeguarding of Centrifuge Enrichment Plants.. 106
9. PERSPECTIVE AND CONCLUSIONS8
GLOSSARY 114
REFERENCE S 120
ANNEXES 131
I Separative Work & the Value Function 133
II Separation Factor in a Gas Centrifuge7
III Derivation of the Dirac Formula9
VII -