Editing Calutron (section)

{{short description|Mass spectrometer}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
[[File:Alpha calutron tank.jpg|thumb|alt=A man stands in front of a C-shaped object twice his size.|An Alpha calutron tank removed from the magnet for recovery of uranium-235]]
[[File:Y-12 Calutron Alpha racetrack.jpg|thumb|alt=A large oval-shaped structure|Alpha I magnet, called the "Racetrack". The calutrons are located around the ring.]]

A '''calutron''' is a [[mass spectrometer]] originally designed and used for [[isotope separation|separating the isotopes]] of [[uranium]]. It was developed by [[Ernest Lawrence]] during the [[Manhattan Project]] and was based on his earlier invention, the [[cyclotron]]. Its name was derived from California University Cyclotron, in tribute to Lawrence's institution, the [[University of California, Berkeley|University of California]], where it was invented. Calutrons were used in the industrial-scale [[Y-12 National Security Complex|Y-12]] [[uranium enrichment]] plant at the [[Clinton Engineer Works]] in [[Oak Ridge, Tennessee]]. The [[enriched uranium]] produced was used in the [[Little Boy]] [[atomic bomb]] that was [[bombing of Hiroshima|detonated over Hiroshima]] on 6 August 1945.

The calutron is a type of [[sector mass spectrometer]], an instrument in which a sample is [[ionized]] and then accelerated by [[electric field]]s and deflected by [[magnetic field]]s. The ions ultimately collide with a plate and produce a measurable [[electric current]]. Since the ions of the different isotopes have the same electric charge but different masses, the heavier isotopes are deflected less by the magnetic field, causing the beam of particles to separate into several beams by mass, striking the plate at different locations. The [[mass]] of the ions can be calculated according to the strength of the field and the charge of the ions. During [[World War II]], calutrons were developed to use this principle to obtain substantial quantities of high-purity uranium-235, by taking advantage of the small mass difference between uranium isotopes.

Electromagnetic separation for uranium enrichment was abandoned in the post-war period in favor of the more complicated, but more efficient, [[gaseous diffusion]] method. Although most of the calutrons of the Manhattan Project were dismantled at the end of the war, some remained in use to produce isotopically enriched samples of naturally occurring elements for military, scientific and medical purposes.