METHOD OF PRODUCING DILUENT FOR PROCESSING WEAPONS-GRADE HIGH-ENRICHED URANIUM INTO LOW-ENRICHED URANIUM Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC C01G43/06 B01D59/20 

FIELD: chemistry.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to a nuclear fuel cycle and specifically to the technology of obtaining a diluent for processing weapons-grade high-enriched uranium hexafluoride into low-enriched uranium hexafluoride. The method involves ²³⁵U enrichment of uranium hexafluoride wastes from screening to a given concentration of ²³⁵U in the diluent, which is carried out in two steps. At the first step, in the collector of a single cascade of gas centrifuges, a product is obtained, having concentration of ²³⁵U which is lower than the required concentration of ²³⁵U in the diluent and the product is sorted into different containers according to content of the hazardous ²³⁴U isotope. The second step involves enrichment of the product coming in to feed the single cascade of gas centrifuges from the container of the selected grade according to content of the hazardous ²³⁴U isotope to a given concentration of ²³⁴U in the diluent.

EFFECT: invention enables to obtain a diluent of the required quality with low cost of separation.

6 cl, 2 dwg, 10 tbl, 5 ex