2. Principles of isotope separation

2.1 Process classification: high and low elemental enrichment processes

The different processes can be distinguished by the order of magnitude of the elemental isotopic effect: in high elemental enrichment processes, the physical phenomenon used is such that the desired content is obtained in a single operation. This is the case for processes using the interaction between uranium atoms and laser radiation, such as the SILVA or AVLIS processes, or the electromagnetic process using a calutron.

On the contrary, in most processes, the increase in content obtained in a single operation is small, and much less than the desired overall increase. In this case, it is necessary to chain together a large number of elementary operations to obtain the desired enrichment....