Word: calutrons
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...buildings and covered an area the size of the District of Columbia. U.S. officials also disclosed more specifics about Iraq's uranium-enrichment programs, the linchpin of Baghdad's efforts to develop an atom bomb. In addition to the three methods for separating uranium isotopes -- gas centrifuge, calutron and gaseous diffusion -- already identified by Washington, Iraq relied on a chemical technique and a jet-nozzle process used in South Africa. New intelligence information has also confirmed that Iraq's chemical stocks are actually 40% larger than Baghdad has admitted. Inspection efforts have been hampered because much of the stock...
...Saddam's scientists also tried a chemical-separation process and the calutrons. The U.S. had employed calutrons to enrich uranium used in the Hiroshima bomb, but then abandoned the technology because it is very expensive and produces enriched uranium only slowly and in small quantities. For Saddam, however, calutrons had advantages. The technology had been declassified and was discussed freely in scientific journals. The imported components had legitimate industrial uses and did not raise eyebrows in the West; better yet, Iraqi industry could produce most of the necessary components itself. Calutrons gulp enormous amounts of electricity, and the power lines...
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