USEC Inc. Message Board

As a supplement to the EUPMAN reply, note that
the gaseous diffusion stages are also enclosed by
heated enclosures during operations that maintain
temperatures at about 200F. In addition to the low pressures,
the temperature also ensures that no solid UF6 is in
the system. I assume that prior to taking a stage
completely offline for maintenance, pressures and
temperatures would be maintained and as much UF6 as possible
would be drawn out of the equipment by sublimation.

eupman, thanks very much for your post. It was
enlightening even though it is high school
level.

shadowodie, we are off on a tangent discussing a complely
irrelevant subject. It's about as relevant as how many
angels can stand on the head of a straight pin. Suggest
we drop it and get on to the more important issues
at hand.

http://vzajic.tripod.com/2ndchapter.html

A chapter of some sort on depleted uranium; there are some details of UF6 and gaseous diffusion, though...

At room temperature and pressure the UF6 is a
solid. However, UF6 is a very strange substance and it
doesn't take much change in temp or pressure for it to
exist in any form ie solid, liquid and gas or even all
3 at once. UF6 normally goes straight from a solid
to a gas, missing out the liquid phase. This is
achieved by either raising the temperature a little or by
reducing the pressure a little. As any large plant
handling UF6 gas is difficult to keep hot the standard
practice is operate them under a vacumn. Thus UF6 remains
a gas even at room temperature.

I don't
think this is a secret and can probably be found in any
general high school chemistry book.

There is a lack of detailed information available
to the general public on HOW the diffusion operation
actually works. Some "how do you" questions start getting
into the proprietary and need to know information area
and need to go through the PR department. I'm not
trying to avoid your questions, it's just not worth the
risk of getting canned for the unauthorized release of
information. I'm sure there are individuals on this board who
wouldn't hesitate to answer, but I'm not one of them.

The Paducah web site supplies a little more detailed
information than the Portsmouth one does and there is an
Enrichment Process link at the bottom.

Wouldldn't the UF6 go solid at room temperatures?
How do you heat up the entire cascade at the same
time? How do you run the turbines and the pumps with
solid material inside? I'm not trying to be cute. These
are just intuitive questions.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_659000/659309.stm

Includes Taylor's alleged golden parachute...

The physical restart, from an extended shutdown, wouldn't be a problem. The biggest hurdle to clear would be the paperwork and approval from the appropriate regulatory agencies.

I hope this is not already reported but I just
heard that BNFL's CEO, John Taylor, has just resigned
over the BNFL MOX fabrification quality cover-up with
the Japenese. (Well, people were saying someone high
up had to fall on the old ceremonial swaord.)

Yes, that's why I'm interested in what's being
offered in the way of tax breaks, guarantees, etc.--it
sounds unlikely at this point that USEC would be very
successful going to Sam's Pawns (or wherever) and getting
the $$$ without some federal/state financial
backing--the deal with AVLIS was "who's going to make us the
best offer?" You're a bank--are you going to loan USEC
money at any kind of reasonable rate to build a plant?
What's your collateral? With USEC's stock price falling
and paper turning into "junk bonds", it will make it
pretty difficult to get loans without strong backing...?
Or am I missing something?