Will lasers brighten nuclear’s future?

The Christian Science Monitor ^ | August 27, 2008 | Mark Clayton

[Pontiac]

Inside a bland industrial building in Wilmington, N.C., an experiment is in the works that could vastly reduce the cost, time, and space needed to make fuel for nuclear power plants and, some nonproliferation experts say, for nuclear bombs as well.

In that building, secret uranium-enrichment technology licensed by GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is nearing a pilot test. If successful, the new technology will enable the company to supply low-cost nuclear fuel to power reactors worldwide, officials say.

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If SILEX is successful, GE-Hitachi could produce low-enriched uranium fuel for power plants at half the cost of centrifuge-based technology, Dr. Eerkens says.

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Six nations beside the US were reportedly still pursuing laser enrichment: Brazil, China, Germany, India, Iran, and Israel, according to a 2005 study by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

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SILEX’s development has been long and tortuous. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the US spent about $2 billion trying but failing to develop an LIS system, Mr. Ferguson says. In 1999, however, President Clinton signed an agreement with the Australian government to bring SILEX technology developed there to the US. In 2001, the US Department of Energy declared certain SILEX information to be “restricted data.”

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It would, he says, obviously be “easier to hide 20 or 30 lasers than 10,000 centrifuges.” One thing he is certain about: In coming months, every scrap of information about SILEX will get plenty of scrutiny from outside US borders. If GE-Hitachi moves ahead with a commercial-scale SILEX plant as the company says it wants to do next year, it will be a sure sign the test was a success.

[Pontiac]

I read an article a few years ago that postulated that laser enrichment technology was a cold war disinformation program used to induce the Soviet Union to spend money on an enrichment technology the had no chance of success.

Yet here it is again when Iran is experimenting with the technology.

[Pontiac]

Thought this might interest you.

[ColdWater]

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/u-laser.htm

[Pontiac]

USEC and DOE entered into an agreement that provided for the transfer of intellectual and physical property pertaining to AVLIS enrichment technology to USEC. USEC expected to operate AVLIS commercially in 2004.

Seems to be a relatively old article, any idea how old it might be.

The message I get from your article is that the claims of an imminent commercial application of the laser enrichment technology have been prematurely trumpeted before.

[FocusNexus]

Thanks for the ping!

Very interesting.

This should make it easier for the US to put in nuclear reactors.

Of course, as you point out, it will make it easier for countries like Iran too. But once we don’t need their oil, they will know that a reataliative or preemptive strike could wipe them out completely, so they may think twice before attacking anyone.

[techcor]

I posted about this years ago. It was also cited as a possibility when considering war with Iraq. In fact, I think Iraq was found to have documents concerning this.