China Builds Uranium Enrichment Centrifuge
From World Nuclear News
The first domestically-produced centrifuge has been successfully installed at a uranium enrichment plant at the Lanzhou Nuclear Fuel Complex, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced. China has previously relied on Russian enrichment technology.
CNNC said that, “after a long period of painstaking research” at Lanzhou in central Gansu province, it has successfully developed uranium enrichment centrifuges for commercial use.
The company said that the installation of the centrifuge marks a strategic accomplishment in terms of safeguarding the sustainable development of China’s nuclear power industry. It noted that it “indicates that China has the independent chemical capacity to produce nuclear fuel and that it has fully grasped uranium enrichment centrifuge technology.” The enrichment process increases the concentration of the fissionable uranium isotope (uranium-235) in order to produce nuclear reactor fuel.
