enriching uranium

[kermit911]

what exacly does that mean?

[Clanad]

Uranium that comes from mines consists of two isotopes, U-235 and U-238. U-235 is the main fissile isotope of uranium, meaning that it is used for the producing of heat in nuclear reactors. As found in nature, natural uranium contains about 0.8% of the U-235 isotope or so. The rest is U-238, which doesn't contribute to the heat production, but, however is similar enough to U-235 to be used to enrich U-235 to around 5%, which makes it more efficient, if you will for use in producing heat in reactors to support steram turbines for electricity production. The stuff used in bombs, as feared from Iran, requires enrichment to near 90%!
Several processes are used, but they all have in common the requirement for tremedous amounts of enrgy to complete the enrichment.

[jake-the-peg]

Not to mention some pretty unplesant chemistry!

To enrich Uranium in the sort of quantities necessary either for weapons or for a reasonable reactor you need to create Uranium Hexafloride gas.

Most early pioneers working with pure flourine met somewhat early deaths.

The issue is that there's great technological boundary to making a crude uranium bomb like the Hiroshima one if you can enrich uranium enough for a power station you can enrich it enough for a bomb.

Making an atomic bomb is relatively easy - getting theenriched uranium is really hard