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The nuclear fuel cycle is the achilles heal of the nuclear industry
Updated on 2008-03-20
Created on 2007-10-28
Category: Science
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Oak Ridge K-25 gaseous diffusion facility
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The K-25 plant, located on the southwestern end of the Oak Ridge reservation, used the gaseous diffusion method to separate uranium-235 from uranium-238. Based on the well-known principle that molecules of a lighter isotope would pass through a porous barrier more readily than molecules of a heavier one, gaseous diffusion produced through myriads of repetitions a gas increasingly rich in uranium-235 as the heavier uranium-238 was separated out in a system of cascades. Although producing minute amounts of final product measured in grams, gaseous diffusion required a massive facility to house the thousands of cascades and consumed enormous amounts of electric power.
Begun in June 1943 and completed in early 1945 at a cost of $512 million, the K-25 plant employed 12,000 workers. The U-shaped K-25 building measures half a mile by 1,000 feet (over 2,000,000 sq. ft. (609,600 m²) and is larger than The Pentagon, and at the time was the biggest building in the world.
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