Uranium enrichment
A process by which natural uranium is enriched for use as fuel for power and research reactors, or into material (high enriched uranium or HEU) for nuclear weapons.
Uranium enrichment refers to production of a quantity of uranium that is "rich" in the specific isotope U-235, which is about 0.7% of natural uranium. This isotope of uranium is fissile, splitting into two smaller atoms and some neutrons when struck by a neutron. The production of additional neutrons means that the material, when in a suitable geometry that promotes the chance of subsequent neutron impact, can produce a self-sustaining chain reaction of successive fissions. This makes it suitable for use in power reactors, and at very high fractions of U-235, in weapons such as the Hiroshima bomb.

A byproduct of producing enriched uranium is that depleted uranium - low in U-235 - is also produced.
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Nuclear Politics »Nuclear Politics
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Uranium enrichment
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