Centrifugation during the Manhattan Project

摘要

Manhattan Engineer District documents from 1942 to early 1944 reveal that consideration of centrifugation as a means of enriching uranium-235 during World War II was more extensive than is commonly appreciated. A full-scale prototype centrifuge was fabricated and tested at near-production speeds; enrichments at close to levels expected theoretically was demonstrated with pilot-plant units; and plans for production plants were developed. By January 1944 most of the engineering problems encountered with high-speed centrifuges had been overcome, but the project was dropped in the face of growing confidence in the eventual success of the competing electromagnetic-separation and gaseous-diffusion enrichment techniques, which already had received significant funding.