Analysis of the Effect of Restrictions on Isotopes 232,234,236U in Marketable LEU on the Choice of Methods for Enriching Reprocessed Uranium in Cascades of Centrifuges.

The study addresses the problems of reprocessed uranium re-enrichment. It is shown that, in the most general formulation, the problem of reprocessed uranium re-enrichment that meets all the requirements on the content of even isotopes and the conditions of spending a given amount of initial reprocessed uranium for production of unit mass of the product cannot be solved in a three-flow cascade of centrifuges or in the simplest versions of double cascades. The possibility of solving the formulated problem in a modified double cascade scheme with a low-enriched uranium (LEU) diluter is demonstrated. The results of numerical experiments showed that it is possible to obtain marketable LEU in the studied version of the double cascade after spending a given amount of reprocessed uranium and meeting different constraints on ²³²U concentration in the product, including even stricter constraints than those currently accepted at separation plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]