Nuclear Proliferation TechnologyTrends Analysis - International ...

PNNL -14480
EMIS technology continued to be used for other purposes such as in the United States,
and designs continued to evolve. In 1957, a design for a 255 0 machine was announced
that could be used for enrichment of heavy isotopes, such as uranium or plutonium.
Although advanced designs were developed later, the active Soviet enrichment program
from 1947-1949 never produced significant amounts of material.
3.3.3.3 Iraq
As early as 1979, Iraqi engineers were attempting to collect information about state of the
art magnet design for use in an EMIS facility. In 1982, construction began on the first of
two planned facilities with each having seventy 255 0 type α stage machines and twenty β
stage machines. At the same time, construction began on plants to produce UCl 4 feed for
the enrichment facility.
By 1990, construction was complete on the calutrons and on feed stock production
facilities. However, technical difficulties limited production, including:
• Severe corrosion problems and furnace and chiller difficulties at the UCl 4
production facility, 73 resulting in limited feedstock availability.
• Difficulties in acquiring good ion-sources, which limited the calutrons’
production efficiency.
Iraq’s calutrons and other supporting facilities were destroyed before production
problems could be solved.
Analysis of available information shows that it took eight years, from the decision to
construction start in 1982, to begin preliminary operation in 1990.
3.3.4 Technological Information Acquisition/Development
3.3.4.1 Acquisition approaches
EMIS technology was first developed in the United States. After WWII, information
about the technology was unclassified and widely disseminated. Many isotope separation
facilities using EMIS technology have been constructed. The technology to construct
such facilities is therefore easily available and can be obtained with little trouble.
Accordingly, all the programs could be considered as an in-country development
acquisition approach.
3.3.4.2 Time constant for technology development
It is difficult to determine a time constant for a successful program. The United States
program (three years) could be considered to represent a minimum time, while the Iraqi
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