Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel

Source: New York Times, William J. Broad  (8/23/11)

"Critics fear that if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could make bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect."


New York Times, William J. Broad

Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium, now produced only in giant industrial plants.

One idea, a half-century old, has been to do it with nothing more substantial than lasers and their rays of concentrated light. This futuristic approach has always proved too expensive and difficult for anything but laboratory experimentation.

Until now.

General Electric has successfully tested laser enrichment for two years.

Critics fear that if the work succeeds and the secret gets out, rogue states and terrorists could make bomb fuel in much smaller plants that are difficult to detect. . .View Full Article