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Restoration of the Isotopic Composition of Regenerated Uranium in Ordinary and Pentastream Gas-Centrifuge Cascades

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Atomic Energy Aims and scope

Shifting the feed point of regenerated uranium hexafluoride to the product of an ordinary cascade affords 235U concentration in the waste that is close to that in the feed and low 232U content. It is proposed that the waste of an ordinary cascade be further purified from 232, 234, 236U by additionally feeding it into a pentaflow cascade and using the additional product. At the same time, in the main product of the cascade, low-enriched uranium should be produced from natural raw material going into the main feed. A computational experiment was conducted based on the methods used to calculate cascades with variable separation coefficients of gas centrifuges. It was shown that high-quality low-enriched uranium meeting ASTM C996-20 specifications in terms of 232, 234, 236U for enriched commercial uranium hexafluoride can be obtained from the purified product.

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Correspondence to V. A. Palkin.

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Translated from Atomnaya Énergiya, Vol. 130, No. 6, pp. 313–319, June, 2021.

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Palkin, V.A. Restoration of the Isotopic Composition of Regenerated Uranium in Ordinary and Pentastream Gas-Centrifuge Cascades. At Energy 130, 332–338 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00820-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10512-022-00820-4

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