Diagram illustrating the basic principle behind a Zippe-type gas centrifuge enrichment of uranium. Here the heavy isotope of uranium (U-238) is represented in dark blue, while the lighter isotope of uranium (U-235) is represented in light blue. The input gas (here represented as a fairly even mix of U-235 and U-238, though in reality natural uranium hexafluoride would have less than 1% of U-235 in it) is released into the center of the centrifuge and the centrifugal forces force the heavier gas to concentrate at the edges of the centrifuge and the lighter gas at the center. By heating the bottom of the centrifuge the lighter gas will be moved by convection currents to concentrate at the top while the heavier gas will concentrate at the bottom (scoops, not shown, would then extract the gases).

Here the effect is greatly exaggerated for conceptual simplicity; in reality it would be very subtle and it takes thousands of centrifuges chained together to enrich any substantial amount of uranium to any substantial amount of enrichment.

Created by User:Fastfission in Inkscape.

 Questa grafica vettoriale non specificata secondo il W3C è stata creata con Inkscape .

Quest'opera è stata rilasciata nel pubblico dominio dal suo autore, Fastfission. Questa norma si applica in tutto il mondo. In alcuni paesi questo potrebbe non essere legalmente possibile. In tal caso: Fastfission garantisce a chiunque il diritto di utilizzare quest'opera per qualsiasi scopo, senza alcuna condizione, a meno che tali condizioni siano richieste dalla legge.

If you want to credit someone, credit "Wikimedia Commons." Otherwise don't credit anyone, that's fine by me. --Fastfission 15:17, 14 April 2008 (UTC)