Could they have been close to making a nuclear weapon? Uranium enrichment explained
When the Israeli plane recently hit a uranium enrichment complex in the nation, Iran could have been in days of achieving the “rupture”, the ability to quickly convert the “yellow cake” uranium into a pump degree fuel
Men work within a uranium conversion installation on the outskirts of the city of Isfahan, Iran, on March 30, 2005. The installation in Isfahan made hexaflouride gas, which was then
In the dark preceded on Friday at local time, Israeli military planes hit one of Iran’s uranium enrichment complexes near the city of Natanz. The eyelets aimed to make concrete destroying; They were Meean to buy time, according to the news reports. For months, Iran seemed to be closer to the “rupture”, the point at which growing partially enriched uranium reserve could become fuel for a nuclear pump. (Iran has denied that he has the leg that seeks the development of nuclear weapons).
But why did the strike happen now? A consideration could imply the way in which enrichment complexes work. Natural uranium is almost completely composed of Uranium 238, or U-238, an isotope that is relatively “heavy” (which means that it has more neutrons in its nucleus). Only about 0.7 percent is Uranium 235 (U-235), a lighter isotope that is capable of maintaining a nuclear chain reaction. That means that in natural uranium, only seven atoms in 1,000 are the U-235 ready for lighter fission; “Enrichment” simply means increasing the percentage of U-235.
U-235 can be used in eyelets because its nucleus can be easily divided. The International Atomic Energy Agency uses 25 kilograms of U-235 content as the reference amount considered sufficient for a first-general implosion pump. In such a weapon, the U-235 is surrounded by conventional explosives that, when they detonate, compress the isotope. A separate device releases a stream of neutrons. (Neutrons are neutral subatomic participation in the nucleus of an atom that adds to its mass). Every time a neutron attacks a U-235 atom, the atom physions; It is divided and spit, on average, two or three fresh neutrons, plus an explosion of energy in the form of heat and gamma radiation. And neutrons emitted in turn hit other U-235 nuclei, creating a self-sufficient chain reaction between the U-235 atoms that have been packed in a critical mass. The result is a nuclear explosion. On the contrary, the most common isotope, U-238, usually absorbs slow neutrons without dividing and cannot boost such a devastating chain reaction.
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To enrich uranium to contain enough U-235, the uranium dust of the “yellow cake” that comes out of a mine must through a conversion process to transform it from a solid into the gas uranium hexafluoruro. First, a series of chemical processes refine uranium and then at high temperatures, each uranium atom is linked to six fluorine atoms. The result, uranium hexafluoruro, is unusual: below 56 degrees Celsius (132.8 degrees Fahrenheit) is a white and closed solid, but just above that temperature, it is sublimated in a dense and invisible gas.
Duration, this uranium hexafluoruro is loaded into a centrifuge: a metal cylinder that rotates tens of thousands of revolutions per minute, faster than the blades of a reaction engine. As the heaviest U-238 molecules move to the cylinder wall, the lighter U-235 molecules remain closer to the center and deviate. This new slightly Richer U-235 gas is put in the next centrifuge. The process is repeated 10 to 20 times, since each more enriched gas is sent through a series of centrifugers.
Enrichment is a slow process, but the Iranian government has legs working on this for years and already has approximately 400 kilograms or enriched uranium at 60 percent of U-235. This does not reach 90 percent requested by nuclear weapons. But where Irán’s first generation Ir-1 centrifugers turn in approximately 63,000 revolutions per minute and perform a relatively modest work, their IR-6 Newer models, built from high-resistance carbon fiber, turn faster and produce a much more enriched uranium.
Iran has been installing thousands of thesis units, especially in Fordow, an underground enrichment installation builds 80 to 90 meters of rock. According to a report published on Monday by the Institute of International Science and Security, new centrifugers could produce a sufficient U-235 Uranium 90 percent for a head head “in just two or three days” and enough for nine weeks in three weeks.
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