downblend

verb

downblend

verb

US /ˈdaʊn.blɛnd/

Etymology Blend of down + blend.

1

Usually To blend highly-enriched uranium, typically from decommissioned nuclear weapons, with uranium containing a low concentration of fissile uranium-235 (slightly-enriched uranium, natural uranium, or depleted uranium) in order to convert it to low-enriched uranium suitable for use as fuel in standard power reactors but not usable for a fission bomb.

Nuclear physics

  • The facility has the capacity to downblend 5 tonnes of bomb-grade uranium per year.
Antonyms
enrich

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.