Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Isotope separation
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{Short description|Concentrating specific isotopes of a chemical element}} '''Isotope separation''' is the process of concentrating specific [[isotope]]s of a [[chemical element]] by removing other isotopes. The use of the [[nuclides]] produced is varied. The largest variety is used in research (e.g. in [[chemistry]] where atoms of "marker" nuclide are used to figure out reaction mechanisms). By tonnage, separating [[natural uranium]] into [[enriched uranium]] and [[depleted uranium]] is the largest application. In the following text, mainly uranium enrichment is considered. This process is crucial in the manufacture of uranium fuel for [[nuclear power plant]]s and is also required for the creation of uranium-based [[nuclear weapon]]s (unless [[uranium-233]] is used). Plutonium-based weapons use [[plutonium]] produced in a nuclear reactor, which must be operated in such a way as to produce plutonium already of suitable isotopic mix or ''grade''. While chemical elements can be purified through [[chemical reaction|chemical processes]], isotopes of the same element have nearly identical chemical properties which makes this type of separation impractical, except for separation of [[deuterium]].
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)