SILEX

Third-generation laser uranium enrichment out of Australia, similar to CRISLA, superseding AVLIS and MLIS. The third generation is primarily defined by its end-to-end use of UF₆ (uranium hexafluoride). AVLIS used uranium metal; MLIS output UF₅.

There are two fundamental insights behind SILEX:

Using hex and a carrier gas G:

• UF₆+G dimers can be broken up and excited with a single photon
• The mass difference between ²³⁵UF₆ and a dimer of ²³⁸UF₆+G is (assuming G is ⁴⁰Ar), 43, much larger than that between
  • ²³⁵U and ²³⁸U (3, traditional separation) or
  • ²³⁵UF₅ and ²³⁸UF₆ (22, MLIS)