Nuclear Proliferation TechnologyTrends Analysis - International ...

PNNL -14480
scale, using the centrifuge designs developed by the Navy. The commercial enrichment
plant is based on a third generation super critical centrifuge with a carbon fiber rotor.
Throughput is expected to be 5-10 swu/yr.
It took the Brazilians eighteen months to construct the initial phase of the facility, and it
began commercial operation in 2002. They plan to be able to produce 20,000 swu/yr in
the initial phase, reaching full capacity in 2007.
Brazil had three distinct centrifuge generations, each separated by about a ten-year
development program. The generations went from sub-critical maraging steel rotors to
sub-critical carbon fiber rotors to super-critical carbon fiber rotors. The throughput
approximately doubled for each generation, going from 1-2 swu/yr to 3-5 swu/yr to 5-10
swu/yr.
3.2.3.5 India
India began research into centrifuge enrichment in 1975 and, by 1985, had a 100-
centrifuge cascade that operated successfully. India’s centrifuge design used a subcritical
maraging steel rotor that had a likely throughput of less than 3 swu/yr. After two years of
pilot plant operation, they began construction of a second facility and had it in operation
by 1992. It consisted of several hundred operating centrifuges of domestically produced
maraging steel. The purpose of this plant was to develop capability to enrich fuel for
India’s reactors, as the French were ceasing to provide fuel for them 30 .
Many of the Indian centrifuges machines prematurely crashed or otherwise proved
defective. Due to technical limitations encountered, it was decided in 1997 to build and
install rotor assembles of an improved design at its pilot centrifuge plant 31 .
Indications are the Indian program had only one design over a 25 year period, which
proved ineffective. The new designs were apparently not a new generation, but rather are
improvements.
3.2.3.6 Pakistan
The Pakistani program (besides the Soviet Union the only successful program to date
specifically intended to develop weapons grade HEU) did not use intrinsically-developed
technology.
Pakistan began a centrifuge enrichment program in 1973. In 1975 Pakistan acquired
plans for early Urenco centrifuges, using both aluminum and maraging steel, and built
cascades of both types 32 . As it had a limited technological capability, Pakistan
purchased centrifuge-related equipment from companies in Germany, The Netherlands,
the United States, France, and China. In this process, an international clandestine
30 Second Indian Enrichment Facility Using Centrifuges is Operational, Mark Hibbs, Nucleonics Week, Vol. 33, No.13; Pg 9,
3/26/1992
31 India to equip centrifuge plant with improved rotor assemblies, Mark Hibbs, Nuclear Fuel, vol.22 No. 24; Pg 7, 12/1/1997
32 Pakistan Builds Second Plant to Enrich Uranium, Simon Henderson, Financial Times (London), 12/11/1997
24