View source for SILEX

Third-generation laser uranium enrichment out of Australia, similar to CRISLA, superseding [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_vapor_laser_isotope_separation AVLIS] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_laser_isotope_separation MLIS]. The third generation is primarily defined by its end-to-end use of UF<sub>6</sub> (uranium hexafluoride). AVLIS used uranium metal; MLIS output UF<sub>5</sub>.

There are two fundamental insights behind SILEX:

Using hex and a carrier gas G:

* UF<sub>6</sub>+G dimers can be broken up and excited with a single photon
* The mass difference between <sup>235</sup>UF<sub>6</sub> and a dimer of <sup>238</sup>UF<sub>6</sub>+G is (assuming G is <sup>40</sup>Ar), 43, much larger than that between
** <sup>235</sup>U and <sup>238</sup>U (3, traditional separation) or
** <sup>235</sup>UF<sub>5</sub> and <sup>238</sup>UF<sub>6</sub> (22, MLIS)