Uranium enrichment - Principles

The history of the uranium enrichment industry is very different from that of the main industrial processes. It was developed in an emergency climate as early as the beginning of WW1, and with hardly any constraints on cost, yield and profit. Remarkable advances in the variety of enrichment methods, as well as in their efficiency, have been achieved since the first calutrons were implemented. Before describing the research and development efforts carried out by many countries, and in order to gain better understanding of the reasons for the competition between so extremely different processes, this article recalls the large variety of the material to be enriched, i.e. the uranium, and the great diversity of the needs to be met by this industry.