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AGA: Arbeitsgruppe Physik und Abrüstung

AGA 4: Fissile Material and Proliferation Resistance

AGA 4.4: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 5. März 2009, 16:30–17:30, VMP 9 HS

On the Challenges of Containing the Spread of Gas Centrifuge Enrichment Plants — •Houston Wood — Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering University of Virginia Charlottesville, Virginia 22904

Since the end of the Cold War, a number of non-nuclear weapon states have pursued enrichment of uranium by gas centrifuges. At the moment, the most challenging case is that of Iran, who has continued to build their gas centrifuge plant. Iran contends they only want to make enriched fuel for nuclear reactors, but the line between civil and military enrichment activities is very thin. The IAEA and Western countries are trying to find ways to assure that Iran does not produce uranium enriched to weapons grade levels. In this talk, I will describe gas centrifuges and cascades of gas centrifuges, and I will discuss the challenges of safeguarding enrichment plants. I will also discuss possibilities for thickening the thin line. These efforts are of utmost importance, not only for Iran, but for other nations that may want to pursue the nuclear fuel cycle in the future.