1. General

Numerous uranium enrichment processes have been studied since the 1940s, ranging from laboratory-scale implementations to pilot plants with capacities of several hundred thousand SWUs (separation work units - see [BN 3 595] for definition). There are currently only two processes used industrially worldwide to produce enriched uranium: gaseous diffusion and centrifugation. What these two processes have in common is that they both use uranium in UF ₆ form.

It is not possible to describe all the other processes in detail here; only those...