They are killing the environment now. I remember this discussion some 25 or 30 years ago in serbia, e. g. depleted uranium. Well, guess some company always wants to find ways for dumping or lifting-up radioactive substance.
Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
21–30 of 97 posts
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#22So this is basically a calutron... a huge mass spectrometer. 1940s technology, upgraded with state-of-the-now control systems, and electromagnets. A formidable engineering work, but more of a breakthrough from legislation and compliance perspective possibly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron
But mass spectrometers don't use uranium.
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#23[flagged]
>Private enterprise enriching uranium is a seriously worrying development...
Or seriously exciting. We might actually get affordable, clean nuclear energy this century.
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#24[flagged]
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#25I have a bad feeling.
Is it the menacing guys in the photo, or that headache-inducing logo?
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#26So this is basically a calutron... a huge mass spectrometer. 1940s technology, upgraded with state-of-the-now control systems, and electromagnets. A formidable engineering work, but more of a breakthrough from legislation and compliance perspective possibly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron
IIRC Calutron's were basically abandoned because they were massively inefficient compared to gaseous diffusion and, particularly, centrifuges. What has changed here to make them competitive again? Or are they counting on selling small quantities at close to any cost for R&D reactors? Speaking of which, whatever happened to laser enrichment? That was apparently very promising at some point?
>Under the Atomic Energy Act, all information not specifically declassified is classified as Restricted Data, whether it is privately or publicly held
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_isotopes_by_lase...
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#27So this is basically a calutron... a huge mass spectrometer. 1940s technology, upgraded with state-of-the-now control systems, and electromagnets. A formidable engineering work, but more of a breakthrough from legislation and compliance perspective possibly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron
But mass spectrometers don't use uranium.
they can absolutely see uranium. It ionizes and thus get separated like many other things https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7470433/
Calutrons are using the same principle of separating ions by their mass/charge ratio, just in a preparative scale (you want to collect what is separated) rather than analytical (you just want to know how much of what).
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#28So this is basically a calutron... a huge mass spectrometer. 1940s technology, upgraded with state-of-the-now control systems, and electromagnets. A formidable engineering work, but more of a breakthrough from legislation and compliance perspective possibly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calutron
IIRC Calutron's were basically abandoned because they were massively inefficient compared to gaseous diffusion and, particularly, centrifuges. What has changed here to make them competitive again? Or are they counting on selling small quantities at close to any cost for R&D reactors? Speaking of which, whatever happened to laser enrichment? That was apparently very promising at some point?
They talk about that in the article:
>"A centrifuge plant does one thing, costs billions, and takes years to stand up. Our machines cost a few hundred thousand dollars, produce material within months, deploy anywhere, and are able to be reconfigured in a matter of days to separate various isotopes as they are needed," said Robert Mendelsohn, co-founder and CTO of Actinide.
Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#29Re: Actinide is first startup to produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU)
#30I've been following SuperCritical, a new startup working on Uranium extraction from sea water. My understanding is that the process is much more sustainable than mining, which makes it easier/faster to establish a domestic source vs the permits needed for a new US based mine.
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2026/08/26/335139...