Characteristics of the gas centrifuge for uranium enrichment and their relevance for nuclear weapon proliferation

This article presents an analytical model, originally developed in the 1980s, for the gas centrifuge and uses this methodology to determine the main design and operational characteristics of several hypothetical centrifuge designs. A series of simulations for a typical first-generation machine is used to assess the relevance of important breakout scenarios, including batch recycling and cascade interconnection, using either natural uranium or preenriched material as feedstock.