1997/09/01 by Alfred L. Yergey, A. Karl Yergey · 2 citations
Environmental Science · Engineering · Chemistry · #Radioactive contamination and transfer #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications #Uranium #Chemistry #Fission products #Accelerator mass spectrometry #Natural uranium #Radiochemistry #Fission #Enriched uranium #Isotope #Natural abundance #Mass spectrometry #Isotopes of uranium #Isotope separation #Nuclear physics #Neutron #Chromatography #Physics
paper · doi:10.1016/s1044-0305(97)00123-2
openalex publication_date 1997/09/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Calutrons were developed in the laboratory of E. O. Lawrence at the University of California at Berkeley. They were a modification of the cyclotrons he had invented and used in his Noble Prize winning investigations of the atomic nucleus. At the time their construction was undertaken, calutrons represented the only certain means of preparing enriched uranium isotopes for the construction of a fission bomb. The effort was successful enough that every atom of the 42 kg of 235 U used in the first uranium bomb had passed through at least one stage of calutron separation. At peak production, the first stage separators, α tanks, yielded an aggregate 258-g/d 235 U enriched to about 10 at. % from its natural abundance level of 0. 72 at. %. The second stage separators, β tanks, used the 10 at. % material as feedstock and produced a total 204-g/d 235 U enriched to at least 80 at. %. The latter, weapons grade, material was used in fission bombs. Under typical operating conditions, each α tank operated at a uranium beam intensity at the collectors of approximately 20 mA and each β tank at a beam intensity of approximately 215 mA at the collectors. Bulk separation of isotopes for bomb production ceased in 1945. Since that time calutrons have been used to separate stable isotopes, but on a more limited scale than wartime weapons production. Stable isotope separations since 1960 have taken place using one modified beta tank.