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Enriching uranium

Natural uranium must be processed before it can be used in a nuclear reactor. Rick Marshall explains how this is done

The terms in bold link to topics in the AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA A-level specifications, as well as the IB, Pre-U and SQA exam specifications. One technique for separating isotopes prior to nuclear fission uses diffusion, another uses circular motion in a centrifuge and a third involves laser ionisation.

Natural uranium consists of a mixture of two isotopes. The lighter fissile (or splittable) 235U makes up 0.7%, with the majority (99.3%) comprising the slightly heavier isotope 238U. The three extra neutrons in 238U make it almost unsplittable. Exploiting nuclear energy by using uranium relies on the fissioning of 235U.

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