Method and apparatus for the infinitely variable setting of the tails U. sup.235 concentration of gas centrifuge cascades for the separation of uranium isotopes

摘要

A process and apparatus for infinitely variably setting the U. sup.235 tails concentration in the operation of centrifuge cascades for the separation of the uranium isotopes in a gaseous uranium isotope mixture, comprising introducing a cascade feed comprising a mixture of gaseous uranium isotopes containing U.sup.235 into a feed header of an intermediate stage, equalizing the pressure in the feed header of each stage to the pressure of the cascade feed, and maintaining a predetermined U.sup.235 product concentration by manipulating a choke valve on product or tails streams from each stage, or a choke valve on the cascade feed stream to vary the ratio between the cascade feed and the cascade product stream to adjust the U.sup.235 concentration and the tails. The apparatus comprises a multiplicity of centrifuge stages connected in series as a cascade wherein a product header from each stage is connected to a feed header of the next stage in the direction of enrichment and a tails header from each stage is connected to the feed header of the preceding stage, lines connecting feed headers of all stages together, and a cascade feed line, a product line from each stage, and a tail line from each stage having choke valves located therein.