ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes how the two most common methods of uranium enrichment - gaseous diffusion and centrifugal separation - work. In the United States, a number of facilities have been built to process the yellowcake and to increase its U-235 content beyond its normal value of 0.71%. In the nuclear power business, these facilities are known as uranium enrichment facilities, and the processed uranium that they produce is called “enriched” uranium. In light water reactors (LWR), the goal of the uranium enrichment process is to increase the concentration of U-235 to between 3% and 5%. The fuel cycle for a breeder reactor is similar to that for a LWR except that it is assumed that the once-burned fuel will be continuously recycled. This is because a well-designed breeder reactor can always create more fuel in the form of U-233, U-235, Pu-239, or Pu-241 than it consumes.
