ANS is committed to advancing, fostering, and promoting the development and application of nuclear sciences and technologies to benefit society.
Explore the many uses for nuclear science and its impact on energy, the environment, healthcare, food, and more.
Explore membership for yourself or for your organization.
Conference Spotlight
2026 ANS Annual Conference
May 31–June 3, 2026
Denver, CO|Sheraton Denver
Latest Magazine Issues
Mar 2026
Jan 2026
Latest Journal Issues
Nuclear Science and Engineering
April 2026
Nuclear Technology
February 2026
Fusion Science and Technology
Latest News
Swiss nuclear power and the case for long-term operation
Designed for 40 years but built to last far longer, Switzerland’s nuclear power plants have all entered long-term operation. Yet age alone says little about safety or performance. Through continuous upgrades, strict regulatory oversight, and extensive aging management, the country’s reactors are being prepared for decades of continued operation, in line with international practice.
F. S. Becker, K. L. Kompa
Nuclear Technology | Volume 58 | Number 2 | August 1982 | Pages 329-353
Technical Note | Radioisotopes and Isotope | doi.org/10.13182/NT82-A32941
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Today, the most actively pursued uranium laser isotope separation methods work with uranium vapor, organic uranium compounds, or uranium hexafluoride. The atomic vapor process has reached the highest development level, but its commercial realization is facing severe obstacles due to the aggressivity of the uranium vapor and the low working pressure. For a commercial separation plant, UF6 would be the most attractive process gas. A promising approach to overcome the problems caused by the small UF6 isotope shift seems to be the use of two infrared wavelengths in the 16- and 9-μm range. Currently, only the CO2 laser pumped CF4 laser and the stimulated rotational Raman scattering of CO2 laser radiation in para-hydrogen are able to provide the energies required for the selective 16-μm excitation, with the Raman method offering better prospects with regard to scalability and frequency tuning. The state-of-the-art of both of these lasers is not advanced enough for a commercial separation plant, where a narrowing of the complex UF6 spectrum by means of a supersonic beam is probably indispensable. Their development level, however, is sufficient to carry through the experiments necessary to clarify the still unanswered questions, i.e., to what extent and with what yield the absorption differences of the two isotopic UF6 species can be transformed into a selective dissociation.