Year
2007
Abstract
Iran has disclosed it plans to construct a gas centrifuge enrichment plant at Natanz with 50,000 centrifuges, but at this time has not agreed to IAEA inspections. Therefore, it is of interest to know with some accuracy what the production capabilities of the plant are likely to be. Earlier research has been conducted to study the maximum concentration of 235U that might reasonably be obtained in a cascade designed to produce enrichment appropriate for fuel for a nuclear power reactor. In the earlier research, a hypothetical gas centrifuge, the Iguaçu centrifuge, was used as the model. The centrifuge parameters were chosen at the 5th Workshop on Separation Phenomena in Liquids and Gases held at Iguaçu, Brazil in 1996. With this model centrifuge, which is 0.5 m in length and operates at 600 m/s, the cascade calculations show that by reducing the feed rate to about 10% of the design feed rate a 235U product concentration of 15% can be achieved. If the centrifuges are re-optimized for lower feed rate by adjusting the scoop and wall temperature gradient, then at about 10% of the design feed rate a 235U product concentration of greater than 50% can be achieved. A number of sources have reported some reasonable parameters describing the P1 gas centrifuges likely being installed in the Natanz facility. There have been recent reports about more advanced gas centrifuges (P2 and P3) developed in Pakistan, and it is conceivable these centrifuges may be used by Iran. In this paper, the Pancake code [Sep. Sci. & Tech., 35(8), (2000), pp. 1207-1221.] is used to predict performance maps and separation factors of the P1, P2 and P3 centrifuges. Because of the uncertainty of the actual operating conditions of these centrifuges, parametric studies of the three models are presented to produce a matrix of results. An M* cascade model is used to study potential enrichment levels based on each of the three centrifuge models.