The Military Significance of Small Uranium Enrichment Facilities Fed with Low-Enrichment Uranium (Redacted)

The main purpose of this Memorandum is to discuss the potential for the production of highly enriched uranium for weapons by small uranium enrichment facilities in particular, gas centrifuge facilities fed with commercially available slightly enriched uranium. If the feed is slightly enriched uranium, such as used for reactor fuel elements 2 to 4 percent uranium-235 content, this production potential can be much higher, typically by a factor of 5, than when the feed material is natural uranium. In consequence, the time to produce a given amount of fissile material for weapons can be significantly reduced by making use of stocks of slightly enriched uranium.